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gryfflepuffinthetardis · 8 months

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Dalek -- Supernova

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Warning: Not-Memories of an Abusive Marriage, Not-Memories of Nova's Death, Mention to Third Doctor, One Mention of the word "Dandy" (not sure if that could be seen as offensive but it's literally what William Hartnell's Doctor called the Third Doctor in the ten-year anniversary "Three Doctors" and I don't intend it in an offensive way but in a way of the Third Doctor had much more light in him than he does as the Ninth Doctor)

Backpfeifengesicht — German — A face that is asking to be slapped or punched.

"Never underestimate the power of my intuition. I recognize your game even before you play it."

“Arrogance is the great nullifier of intelligence, rendering, even, the cleverest of men, a fool. — Nick Adigu Burke

“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Any intelligent fool can makes things bigger and more complex… it takes a touch of genius… and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” — Albert Einstein.

“A fool is someone whose arrogance is only surpassed by his ignorance.” — Orrin Woodward

2012

Lillie and Rose had been traveling with the Doctor for about two and a half months now. It never stopped to perplex Lillie how fascinated the Doctor was in with her and Rose, as if they were the most interesting people he had ever met when he had the bigger-on-the-inside spaceship whose console he was practically dancing around.

When they first met the Doctor, he had been weighed down by a terrible tragedy, the death of his planet, Gallifrey, the death of his people—Time Lords, the death of Elder, a neighboring planet of Gallifrey, which had been inhabited by an alien species older than the Time Lords but a much more compassionate and progressive lot, and what seemed to hurt him the most at times, the death of his best friend, the girl he had loved since he was eight years old, not that he had verbally specified his love but it was clear he had some kind of love for her… Princess Supernova of Elder. He didn’t talk about her a lot but from what they gathered was that she was a fireball… literally. She had been a living embodiment of a star… a supernova and she had been capable of immortality, the Doctor confessed that sometimes he had wondered if she were older than the universe itself… yet she hadn’t been big on responsibilities yet she, being a princess, was required to learn about politics of the universe… planets and their inhabitants, the Shadow Proclamations, etc. he hadn’t explicitly told them that but Lillie had gathered from context.

All of these tragedies were caused by something called the “Time War”, a war he had fought in between his people and the Elders against some third party he seemed to deem too painful to tell them about so they never pushed. He would tell them in time. He had been the only survivor, he had admitted that after losing… he never specified which lose but the sisters had the feeling that the death of Nova had broken both his hearts, after losing… he had lost the will to care about the universe because the universe didn’t care but he never said what had brought that will back. Because of them.

But the girls didn’t dare think that they were responsible for his change of heart but they couldn’t deny that they might have helped in some way. They didn’t think they could be that important to him… but they were. Nova was right… as she always was. Saving them led the events of him bumping into them twice more before he let them be his companion for that adventure… and as he ran with them… he felt happiness like he hadn’t since before the Time War, the same but happiness, nonetheless.

There were moments of his that worried the sisters, feeling that he was trying too hard to be happy, trying to push something away. Rose had always gotten the feeling from her own sister, as if she were always trying to push something away but she couldn’t ever tell what it could possibly be.

He was rambling about some planet for pleasure and how that seemed like a challenge…

When an earsplitting sound entered throughout the Tardis, making the sisters clutch their own ears.

“What is that!?” Rose shouted.

“Distress signal! Sent out on every wavelength. It’s extraordinary.”

“It’s deafening!” Lillie shouted.

The Tardis appeared in a dimly lit room of the Van Statten Museum and the trio exited.

"So what is it? What's wrong?" Rose asked as Lillie went to wander, exploring the artifacts nearby.

"Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course." He said.

"Where are we?"

"Earth. Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

"And when are we?" Lillie asked.

"Two thousand and twelve." He said.

"God, that's so close. So I should be twenty-six."

"Dear god, that would mean that I should be twenty-five." Lillie cringed, "Oh, god, that's so old!"

The Doctor rolled his eyes and flipped a switch, lighting up the corridor.

"Blimey. It's a great big museum." Rose said.

"An alien museum. Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship." The Doctor observed, pointing out the different bits of evidence of extraterrestrial life.

"That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed." Rose exclaimed, looking at an alien arm.

Lillie caught sight of a robotic head, as she looked at it, she got a rising feeling of rage, rage like she had never felt before, not even for Jimmy Stone who she had apparently gone into a dissociative fugue out of revenge for. The kind of rage she had gotten the feeling that the Doctor and Nova were capable of. A personal rage, that could make her lose all sense of logic and sense of morality momentarily, the kind that could control her and the kind that would break her heart when she realized what she had done. The kind of rage that scared her.

Then she saw flashes of a… she couldn’t quite make it out… was it a woman, but she was surrounded like multicolored lights that made her eyes burn like she was seeing more than she should. Then it was gone, and she was left with a fading light in her eyes like you get if you’re in the dark and then suddenly it’s bright, once the light faded her headache seemed to disappear completely.

"Oh, look at you." The Doctor said, joining her.

"What is it?"

"An old friend of mine. Well, enemy.”

Lillie saw flashes of robots similar to the robotic head in front of her but they seemed more elegant… more sleek… more advanced… and it brought back the anger but even worse now but when the Doctor continued to speak she was brought back to reality, the images and anger gone again, “The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

“Yeah, you’re nine hundred.” Lillie muttered.

“I’ve known people who were older.” The Doctor said, defensively.

"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose wondered.

"No, it's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." The Doctor said and he brought his hand up to touch the glass when Lillie grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

His blue eyes meet her darker blue ones that were full of concern for not only her sister but for him.

“Doctor… if someone has enough money to have the milometer from one of the most well-known alien spaceships in the world and a stuffed Slitheen arm… they’ll have money for alarms and if they’re collecting aliens, that’ll make you Exhibit A.” She let go on his arm but kept explaining her analysis of the owner of the museum, “And if they deem aliens as things.” Her tone briefly switched from concern to disgust at the sense of morals she had deduced, “to just observe at behind a glass… I can’t imagine they’ll be gentle once they find out you’re an alien. All this stuff is either inanimate or dead and the signal was alive and distressed.”

The Doctor nodded, that made sense and turned to the girls, their safety being his top priority. “Right, we should tread carefully for here on out.”

They heard the sound again, now louder and more desperate, further proving Lillie right as it was clear, it wasn’t just a distress call but a cry of pain.

Rose noticed a few seconds later that both the Doctor and Lillie were running towards the sound.

“Come on, Rose.” Lillie shouted and nearly knocked into a mannequin dressed in a suit and glasses, next to a plastic display about the “Men in Black” with a photo of the supposed sighting of the Men in Black and later with one of a handsome man with dark hair and a military jacket with sunglasses on although the man in the picture had intentionally let the owner of the museum pay too much money for a picture he had intentionally de-qualitied.

Rose caught up with her sister and she struggled to keep up with the Doctor, thinking, this is treading carefully?

They ran down a corridor and got to a heavy metal door and the Doctor banged on it before taking out his sonic screwdriver to unlock the door and when it opened, it was revealed that it had been muffling the already deafening sound.

The two guards in the room were so surprised by their sudden appearance that it took them a few seconds to point their guns at them.

Lillie, out of habit of running during one of her troublemaking acts of rebellion, ran off but it was clear she wasn’t trying to get away from the guards, but get under their skin as she didn’t head back to the Tardis, she ran through corridors until she circled back as if she knew the layout and then once she got another guard’s attention she went back and opened a door, heading inside, just in time for the guards to ram into one another at the corner.

The guards, with their faces burning with embarrassment and their helmet skew brought Lillie back to a restrained Rose and the Doctor. Then she heard their comms turn on as a man spoke.

“Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One descending. Bad Wolf One descending.”

Lillie and Rose exchanged looks. That had been what Gwyneth had called Rose.

—

It was a normal day for Henry Van Statten.

He walked down his Utah base corridor with his assistant and series of other people he had paid an absurd amount of money for even though he deemed them utterly expendable.

His assistant, a nervous man named Polkowski said, “On behalf of all of us, I want to wish you a very happy birthday, sir. And the President called to convey his personal best wishes.”

“The President is ten points down. I want him replaced.” Van Statten stated.

This was something he thought he had power to do, there were a lot of things he thought he had the power to do but actually didn’t. If it was, a certain bigoted future president would’ve been instead of the first female president and wouldn’t been allowed to run again.

Polkowski made the mistake of voicing his opinion; “I don't think that's very wise, sir.”

“Thank you so much for your opinion. You're fired.” Van Statten declared and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, “Get rid of him.”

“What?” Polkowski gasped when two armed guards grabbed him and pushed him through the crowd of people to two more armed guards who dragged him away.

“Wipe his memory, put him on the road someplace. Memphis, Minneapolis. Somewhere beginning with M.” Van Statten ordered. A woman with frizzy strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail took Polkowski’s place, “So, the next President. What do you think? Republican or Democrat?”

“Democrat, sir.” She said, not actually sure which was preferable to a man like this.

“For what reason?”

“They're just so funny, sir?” She asked, now even more unsure. This man cared nothing about politics unless it could do something for him.

Then Van Statten stopped and the woman stiffened, but kept her posture.

“What is your name?” Van Statten asked.

“Goddard, sir.” She said and turned to look him in the eye, “Diana Goddard.”

“I like you, Diana Goddard.” He said and she breathed in relief but her posture didn’t sink… she used to be a guard there. They continued walking. “So, where's the English kid?”

“Sir! Sir!” A twenty-year-old man whose name was not actually “The English Kid” as shocking as that news would be to Van Statten if you told him otherwise in passing, said rushing forwards. “I bought ten more artefacts at auction, Mister Van Statten.”

“Bring 'em on, let me see 'em.” Van Statten said.

“Sir, with respect, there's something more urgent. We arrested three intruders fifty-three floors down. We don't know how they got in.” Goddard said and she chose her words carefully so it wouldn’t result in her memory being erased or the guards that Lillie had humiliated. “They… they demanded to see you.”

Henry Van Statten had convinced himself he wasn’t alarmed when he heard he had intruders so far into his base, and “allowed” himself to be amused when he heard they “demanded” to see him.

They hadn’t demanded. The guards, still bright red with embarrassment and fear of what Van Statten would do to them if he found out that this tiny girl run circles around them, had barked that they were taking them to Henry Van blah-blah-blah—Lillie was already bored as she made obvious through a loud yawn that covered the man’s name.

“Well, if you insist.” She had retorted like they were annoying her.

“I'll tell you how they got in. In-tru-da window.” Van Statten said; a joke that would make the Doctor cringe… and that was saying something. No one laughed. “In-tru-da window. That was funny!”

This was followed by obedient laughter by people who didn’t find the joke particularly funny.

“Bring 'em in. Let's see 'em. And tell Simmons I want to visit my little pet. Get to it!” He shouted and then went through a doorway as Goddard touched her headset.

“Simmons? You'd better give me good news. Is it talking?”

Simmons, a man who has been a sociopath since he was a child when he had a different name, he used to be plagued with migraines that couldn’t ever be helped by Doctors, only by inflicting pain upon someone else, answered Goddard, “Not exactly talking, no.”

“Then what’s it doing?”

“Screaming.” Simmons said, what else was the creature supposed to do when you’re drilling into their flesh, “Is that any good.”

He saved Goddard from replying by continuing to drill and she disconnected as soon as she heard the screams continued, hiding her disgust from showing on her face.

A middle-aged balding man who positively reeked of arrogance entered, refusing to look at them in that egotistical way narcissists did, always looking through people, never giving them a second thought. Lillie already didn’t like him but she had gathered that from his office. He was followed by a woman and a young man around Rose’s age.

When he saw the intruders in his office, waiting for him, Van Statten became nervous in ways he hadn’t felt for a long time and ways he never had before, not only did the Doctor worry her but one of the girls did as she was loudly declaring how easy it had been to outrun both of the guards and all the flaws she had spotted so far in Van Statten’s security detail. She was a troublemaker and Van Statten didn’t like troublemakers. They tended to think for themselves.

He decided that he would ignore them at first, as if them appearing fifty-three floors of his highly secured base, despite what Lillie had to say, hadn’t unnerved him at all.

He dared a glance at the intruders, being long accustomed to not paying attention to those around him, just seeing colored blurs.

One was a man, he was of interest, casually dressed in a leather jacket and a big grin that exuded a confidence that Van Statten felt he had no right to have.

The other two of them were girls, Van Statten prepared discounted them as once, however, the brunette girl had immediately turned and made eye contact as if she could sense the very second, he would take to look at her. She didn't break it, she didn't blink, she tilted her head to the side and slightly down, the lightness of her eyes made it even more intense yet it wasn’t particularly focused... until Van Statten broke it. It unnerved him. Just as she suspected. She could see through all of his manipulation and intimidation tactics at once, she wanted to see how he would react to her own.

“These are the intruders, sir.”

The intruders didn't seem worried, in fact, the brunette girl seemed bored, despite the fact that she had run off when she saw them and nearly escaped them. Van Statten didn't like her, she unnerved him in the way he hoped he would unnerve others. And she looked barely legal.

Her appearance infuriated him. It wasn't intimidating at all like his did that he had worked so hard on. She was wearing a black star-studded leather jacket over a black cold shoulder top with a Stargazer Lily silhouette showing a black starry night sky with a black and white plaid skirt with white stars on it, black skinny jeans with stars, and black and white high-knee plaid boots with buckles.

“They can wait.” Van Statten said, looking back at the girl who was playing with a ring on her finger… a spinner ring… he didn’t like her.

Van Statten let the “English Kid” show his artefacts.

"And this is the last. Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it." The young man said, showing what he had bought, he spoke in a British accent unlike everyone else who spoke with an American accent as they were in America.

"What does it do?" The older man asked.

"Well, you see the tubes on the side? It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel." He theorized. Lillie tilted her head, that didn't sound right but she wasn't sure how she knew that.

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor said.

"Shut it." The frizzy-haired woman said.

"Really, though, that's wrong." The Doctor said.

"Is it dangerous?" The younger man asked.

"No, it just looks silly." He went to reach for the object and the guards cocked their guns around him but the older man gestured for them to stand down as he went to hand it the Doctor the object, but Lillie instead took it and played it like she was an expert player of... whatever it was. Like she had been doing it for years.

"You just need to be... delicate." The Doctor raised his eyebrows at the girl as she played a familiar solemn tune he thought he would never hear again. Elder singing filled his ears. Her soft voice singing, rivaling the beauty the sounds of the Tardis. The notes played in a beautiful order that gave everyone an odd sense of inner warmth, like a giant hug, a feeling that was completely alien to Van Statten. As alien as the object she played.

"It's a musical instrument." The man observed.

"And it's a long way from home." The Doctor said, taking it from Lillie gently as she blinked her eyes as if a fog had settled back in her head.

"Here, let me." The man snatched the instrument from the Doctor, his touch was harsher, and the notes weren't as lovely.

"I did say delicate. It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision." The Doctor said and the man softened his touch, emitting the more beautiful notes. "Very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you." The man said and then tossed it aside onto the floor, not so delicately, he enjoyed the disappointment that flashed across the Doctor’s face but the brunette didn’t show any emotion at this action which infuriated him, before asking the Doctor, "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. And who are you?"

"Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extraterrestrial artifacts in the world,”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure I saw what looked like crumbled tinfoil with grease on it down there.” Lillie deadpanned but was ignored.

“...And you just stumbled in by mistake."

"Pretty much sums me up, yeah." The Doctor grinned.

He chose a tactic that never failed to cow his subordinates into submission—changing to booming rage, “TELL ME HOW YOU GOT IN!”

“Well, we have a British police box from the sixties that’s secretly a spaceship with a pocket dimension inside so it’s bigger on the inside that doesn’t actually travel by flying but more like materialize and dematerialize like the apparate and disapparate spell, and with it, we can travel through time and appear in buildings miles under the surface.” Lillie stated the truth with a tone of utter sarcasm… so no one took her seriously.

She could see the worry in Van Statten’s face, he was worried everyone would start laughing at him.

"The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplices. You're quite a collector yourself, they're rather pretty."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her and her sister she." Rose snapped.

"Then I'll punch your teeth in." Lillie added, glaring at him with a sickly-sweet smile.

"They're English too! Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend. Your pick." He said to the younger man. “I do so love the English, they sound so commanding without actually having any power.”

Lillie glared at the arrogant man a look that gave him the impression that she could kill him before he could even attempt to plead for his life.

“‘Arrogance is the great nullifier of intelligence, rendering, even, the cleverest of men, a fool.’” Lillie quoted, “And you are far from the cleverest of men.”

"This is Mister Henry Van Statten." The man said.

"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked.

"Or more accurately his mother's basement." Lillie snarked in a pitying tone, smiling at the man, showing no fear of him, something that was new to him.

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet."

Still the girls were not impressed.

"Don't be stupid. No one owns the internet." Rose scoffed.

Van Statten was obviously mimicking his pose in the painting. He opened his eyes and smirked.

"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?"

The brunette girl looked at Van Statten and then at the portrait, she made a subtle face of dislike at it before continuing to look between the two. Then she gave him a look a deep and condescending pity like he was so pathetic that it was painful. And they didn’t care for that at all.

"Overcompensation and mirroring." She said in a deadpan voice, she wasn't from America, somewhere in Britan, Van Statten didn't know, his job was essentially spend money and try to make everyone afraid of him, did you expect him to study British accents or have any discernible skills.

"What?"

"You're intimidated, so you're appearing to not be by imitating that painting's pose." She said, casually.

"You, brunette.”

“Lillie.” Lillie and Rose said.

“Whatever, what makes you think you know me?"

"I studied human behavior, I can read body languages."

"Behavioral science... that's..." He laughed at it.

"You're a misogynist. You dismiss women and think they can never hold more power over you. But you lack a lot of things, most of all the cunning and wit of a woman. You try to induce intimidation into those who see that... if you could call that a painting, by the implication that you had paid an artist, a pretty damn good one, I’ll bet world-renowned, to give up their integrity to paint that painting, it shows off your money and shows your lack of morals and you fear that it’s more impressive than you. You’re right.”

Van Statten opened his mouth but Lillie kept talking.

“Your dad never loved you, couldn't even remember your birthday. Had his assistant buy you presents and claim they were from him...” Her eyes darted to the toy telescope in realization, “oh... you got his assistant fired... he bought you a telescope I bet and your dad didn't approve of that, fired him on the spot, never saw him again. The only person to ever show you kindness. Maybe if he hadn't you'd have some semblance of kindness but you are your father's son. You overcompensate your power because you grew up feeling powerless. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in some cases, huh?”

Van Statten had the feeling that he couldn’t treat this girl like he could others. If he tried to have her memory erased, the Doctor and the blonde wouldn’t let that happen without a fight. They mysteriously appeared fifty-three floors into his base… Van Statten didn’t like mysteries; it implied that he didn’t know something.

“I’d be careful. I met their mother. This is Rose Tyler and Lillie Tyler.” The Doctor warned, impressed by the brunette’s observations but didn’t want her to get shot. Jackie would have his head.

“Goodard. Did we ever have eyes on her?”

“What?” Lillie asked.

“Uh, Delilah Tyler. She was a prodigy, took complicated college classes since she was twelve. But in 2005, she dropped out of high school.”

“Right. She was that troublemaker.” Van Statten said, “I don’t like troublemakers.”

“I only make trouble when there’s people like you. I don’t rebel because I can, I rebel to do the right thing.” Lillie said.

“Yet you dropped out of high school. Full ride to Cambridge.” Van Statten tried to demean her but she wasn’t taking it.

“I got a better offer.” Lillie said, holding her head high and the Doctor beamed. "Do you know the word 'Backpfeifengesicht'." Lillie said with perfect pronunciation. He didn't answer so she took that for a "no". "It's German and it means 'a face that is asking to be slapped or punched'. Now that sums you up." She said this with a completely straight face and then pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth in a cocky demeanor, and Rose snickered.

So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum. Anything you don't understand, you lock up." The Doctor summed up,

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten asked as if he doubted it.

"I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am." He said.

"And yet, I captured you." He said, smugly.

"For now." Lillie said.

"Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?" Van Statten said, ignoring her.

"You tell me."

"The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?"

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

"You want to see it?"

"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone." Rose snarked and the guards laughed, shocking Van Statten. They dare laugh without permission?

"Men." Lillie agreed.

"Goddard, inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the girls. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. Let’s see if Delilah is smarter than you, maybe she’ll get your job!” Van Statten

“My name is Lillie and no money could convince me to work for you.” Lillie spat.

“And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

“What the hell is canoodling?” Rose asked Lillie.

The Doctor was rather glad that the girls were away from Van Statten, he knew this sort of man, Lillie had been right, his lack of love and kindness in childhood formed him to be the apathetic man he was today.

Van Statten explained to the Doctor once they reached the Cage, “Whenever I have a bad day, all I need to do is pop down and visit him. He’s done more for me than three wives and fifteen therapists or that little stunt your little accomplice did.”

Shocker. Van Statten, being a, misogynist who viewed women as less powerful and intelligent than him and a control freak who thought he was the always the smartest person in the room and seemed to use power to help his possible superiority complex.

“But what is it?” The Doctor asked, ignoring this.

“We do keep asking but the thing is that it just doesn’t want to tell us.” Van Statten said. “We've tried everything. The creature has shielded itself but there's definite signs of life inside.”

“Inside? Inside what?”

A man in an orange protective suit came out of the Cage’s heavy metal door.

“This is Simmons, his job is to encourage it to stop sulking.” Van Statten said, lightly.

Translation: Torture it. That was the highest possibility in the Doctor’s head.

Simmons, a former criminal by the name of Aaron Denton, who had been plagued by constant headaches, until he realized as a child as inflicting pain upon others relieved it, didn’t acknowledge the Doctor but seemed polite to his boss. Why shouldn’t he? He’s being paid an absurd amount of money to torture a creature to relieve his pain instead of prolonging or even continuing his prison sentence.

“Welcome back, sir. I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting.” Simmons said, he may be a sociopath but he was perfectly capable of manners.

“Metaltron?” The Doctor asked, knowing if Nova were still there she’d snark something like, “I can only assume one person here has so few brain cells to come up with that.”

“Thought of it myself.” Van Statten said. Well that explained it. “Good, isn't it?” No. “Although I'd much to prefer to find out its real name. And see which name I prefer.”

“Here, you'd better put these on.” Simmon advised, referring to some rather ordinary rubber protective gauntlets, further illustrating how little Van Statten cared for his staff. “The last guy that touched it burst into flames.” Simmons had a remorseful glint in his eyes, like it almost fascinated him.

“I won't touch it then.” The Doctor said.

“Go ahead, Doctor. Impress me.” Van Statten challenged.

The Doctor just stepped through the heavy door and Van Statten gave Simmons an order, “Don't open that door until we get a result.” Then he and Goddard went to a nearby desk with monitors on it.

The door closed behind the Doctor, but he got a glimpse of a drill… and he didn’t think it was being used for maintenance work. There was the smell of hot metal and a sizzling sound, he knew that must’ve been the flesh burning behind the metal.

The Doctor knew what being tortured felt like. His mind flashed to various moments in his adventures where Nova had willingly let herself be tortured just so others wouldn’t. She had always dismissed it while implying it was nothing compared to the torture her heightened emotions and worst memories inflicted on her, constantly of everyday.

He turned to the creature, it was still too dark to see but all he could make out was a dim blue light about the size of an eye. Metal and a blue light weren’t enough to narrow it down.

“Look, I'm sorry about this. Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him but I’ve nothing to do with him. I've come to help. I'm the Doctor.” The Doctor introduced himself with sympathy in his voice that would quickly disappear once he realized what it was.

“Doc… Tor…” The creature said in a rusty metallic voice, with two white lights blinking just above the dim blue light with each syllable. The creature said the name slowly as if trying it out… no… as if recalling an old memory.

Fear struck the Doctor, fear of creature he only saw in his nightmares that ever since the Time War, made him wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for air.

“The Doctor!?” The creature shouted, now with the rage that was the only trait its species were known to have, especially for the Doctor, the creature remembered who the Doctor was even without its memory files.

The Doctor felt denial raging in his head even before the lights turned on, revealing various other torture tools—saws, more drills, an electric generator—but he paid no attention to that but there was no denying it once he could see it. Granted, this was one of the most battered ones, he had ever seen but it was still there, alive, breathing, living—while all the Time Lords and all the Elders—while Nova died.

Its gun stick still jerked, ready to shoot its old enemy down. , the Dalek screamed it’s catchphrase but with more than just hatred this time… a hysterical fury… one may describe it as “frothing at the mouth” if Daleks had mouths that is. “EXTERMINATE!” Insane. The Dalek was genuinely insane as one would be from decades of torture. “EXTERMINATE!”

TheDoctor hammered on the door in terror, memories of Nova’s death crashing over him in waves.

“Let me out!” The Doctor pleaded.

“Exterminate!”

Outside the Cage, Goddard panicked for the Doctor’s safety, pleading to Van Statten while he and Simmons only remained fascinated, “Sir, it's going to kill him!”

“It's talking!” Van Statten said, not caring about the Doctor’s life at all.

Orrin Woodward did once say, “a fool is someone whose arrogance is only surpassed by his ignorance.”

In the cage, the Doctor was still hammering on the door to no avail and he knew that.

“You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be destroyed!” The Dalek raged and the Doctor shrank away, staring in horror, he wouldn’t let the Time Lords die with him trying to run away when there was no hope. He would look it in the eye. Die with some dignity.

The Dalek’s gun arm twitched but nothing happened. No beam of death. No Dalek gunshot noise.

For once, the Doctor was thankful for what Van Statten had done, if it wasn’t already broken, then him having it continuously tortured at rendered it nothing more than a bad-tempered pepper pot whose only weapon was it’s voice giving you a headache.

He laughed in relief, “It's not working.”

The Doctor laughed with more malevolence this time… not just as the Dalek looked at its useless weapon, the tables had turned and now the Dalek was at the mercy of the Doctor.

The Doctor didn’t realize how much savagery Nova’s death had caused him, perhaps his two regenerations since witnessing it had only enhanced it, caused it to grow like a festering wound. He had said it back with much more lightness, when he had much more light inside of him. Back when he was, as his first self-called him when the Time Lords have to break the First Law of Time (not that it was a reoccurring situation, say, oh, every ten years or so), a Dandy when they had to sacrifice Two’s precious recorder in a world of antimatter in a black hole, due to his clothing and hair back then.

Imagine if he still dressed that way now with Nine?

“Fantastic! Oh, fantastic! Powerless! Look at you. The great space dustbin. How does it feel?”

He remembered the last time he ran into powerless Daleks on the planet Exxilon during his first trip to the future with Sarah Jane Smith.

The Doctor stormed towards it, not to cause it harm but just to see what its reaction would be. It tried to roll away but it only allowed it to move a couple of inches, the rusty chains groaning as they held it back.

“Keep back!” It pleaded.

The Doctor continued until it was inches away, staring straight into its glowing blue eyepiece.

“What for? What're you going to do to me?” The Doctor shouted and it didn’t respond. He circled around the Dalek, glowering with the rage of being the last of his kind, “If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What's the point of you? You're nothing!” He had completely circled around the Dalek and returned to his original spot when he spat, “What the hell are you here for?”

“I am waiting for orders.” The Dalek answered.

“What does that mean?”

“I am a soldier. I was bred to receive orders.” It clarified as if the Doctor didn’t know that.

“Well you're never going to get any. Not ever.” The Doctor said.

“I demand orders!” The Dalek cried.

“They're never going to come! Your race is dead! You all burnt, all of you. Ten million ships on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.” The Doctor spat.

“You lie!” The Dalek accused him.

“I watched it happen. I made it happen!” The Doctor shouted.

“You destroyed us?” The Dalek asked.

The Doctor’s rage was overcome with sadness as he recalled the decision he had to make that wiped out the Daleks, the Time Lords, and a good amount of the Elders. He turned away, taking a few steps.

“I had no choice.”

“And what of the Time Lords?” The Dalek asked.

“Dead. They burnt with you.”

"What of... the Elders..." The Dalek asked and the Doctor's eyes blazed, his anger growing but the self-loathing part of him let the Dalek finish, "What of... Princess... Supernova..."

The Doctor closed his eyes as heartache beat against his chest, he saw flashes of Supernova behind his eyes.

"She... she left Elder... to find me on Gallifrey... she was killed by a Dalek... died in my arms... soon after the war with no more Elders... Elder froze." The Doctor said; a planet of living embodiments of stars was no longer given the same amount of heat with so fewer Elders… and she froze, freezing any Elders that may have survived. “The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost.”

“And the coward survived.” The Dalek called him what he was considered to be by his own people. The one who ran away.

“Oh, and I caught your little signal. ‘Help me.’ Poor little thing. Pathetic. The Dalek race would be ashamed!” The Doctor mocked, “But there's no one else coming 'cause there's no one else left.” The Doctor gathered enough sense to feel shame himself… “Look at me.” His voice was soft and filled with self-loathing, “Look at the sort of man you turned me into.”

“I am alone in the universe.” The Dalek realized.

“Yep.” The Doctor popped the ‘p’ but his tone still retained his hatred.

“So are you.” The Doctor’s angry smile faded and his eye twitched with fury. “We are the same.”

This jolted the Doctor back into booming rage, causing him to snap, he turned back to the Dalek, storming at it, “We're not the same! I'm not…” He paused as a thought occurred to him, the last guy who touched it burst into flames, he pulled himself back, he didn’t need to touch it to destroy it, and he allowed his need for revenge, a gleeful savage need. “No, wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah, okay. You've got a point. 'Cause I know what to do. I know what should happen. I know what you deserve.” He grinned as the Dalek remained silent; its plan having gone wrong. “Exterminate.”

The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the electric generator, powering it up higher than it had been designed and he pulled the lever, lighting up the Dalek with electricity, making the Dalek scream in pain!

“AHHH! HAVE PITY!” The Dalek cried.

“Why should I? You never did!” The Doctor shouted back. “You killed my family! You killed her! Most brilliant woman in the whole universe and you killed her like she was nothing!”

He would only realize later that he must be going through something Nova did. When she first ran into the Cybermen, she had dealt with some on another world—a world where they were created by a dying man who didn’t realize living without emotions was worst than living with them until they forced him to convert—she fought them in the future of that world and they tortured her… she often changed the length of time from thousands to millions to a billion years—until her companion found and saved her… and met their death… it had broken Nova… her parents and older Time Lords described her as once being a happy, optimistic girl but when he first met her, she was broken… she had gotten better but when she met the Cybermen… she had literally frothed at the mouth with rage, she had had some glee in her savagery towards them… just like he did towards the Daleks.

Outside the Cage, realizing the Doctor had the intention to kill his prized collection, Van Statten turned to his guards and ordered softly, “Get him out.”

The guards entered and the Dalek screamed out, “HELP ME!”

Bywater, one of two secret undercover FBI agents, pulled the Doctor away from the electricity generator before he could quickly rise its level to kill it, Bywater grabbed him and the other guard held her gun to his head but he didn’t care, all that he needed to do was kill the Dalek.

Van Statten didn’t even bother to acknowledge the Doctor or give the Dalek time to recover from the torture before he was shouting at the Dalek to recognize him as Simmons turned off the voltage.

“I saved your life. Now talk to me. Goddamn it, talk to me!” Van Statten shouted.

“You've got to destroy it!” The Doctor was shouting as he was dragged out of the room.

Van Statten still deemed power through sheer arrogance and ignorance as he looked into its eyestalk, “The last in the universe. And now I know your name. Dalek. Speak to me, Dalek.” The Dalek didn’t speak. “I am Henry van Statten, now recognize me!” Like that was going to impress it. Van Statten looked at Simmons, “Make it talk again, Simmons. Whatever it takes.”

Simmons looked pleased at his project.

—

Adam Mitchell, as they learned his name was, took the girls to his workshop, apologizing for Van Statten's attitude. He was much nicer than Van Statten but that wasn't exactly a high bar to reach. A toddler could reach it.

Adam seemed to be nervous but Rose was used to boys being nervous around her and her sister. Ever since Rose was thirteen and despite her sister’s boyish clothing and personality, she had always been very, very pretty and was completely oblivious to both her looks and how boys acted different around her; only Mickey had been immune and that was because he saw her as a younger sister.

But Lillie could tell it was because of Van Statten. He viewed people as disposable. Either he had those he fired killed, imprisoned, or had their memories wiped.

"Sorry about the mess. Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods.”

“Are you okay?” Lillie asked, making Adam look at her oddly. “He threatened to replace me with you just to make you squirm and something tells me he doesn’t just fire people.”

“As long as I can manage creative enough stories for these. I’m fine.” Adam said, trying not to worry them. “What do you think that is?" Adam handed Lillie an inch-thick piece of metal.

"A lump of metal? " She said, slowly, she wasn’t really trying to guess, she wanted to reassure Adam she had no interest in his job.

"Yeah. Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. I’ve found others like it. You put them together, these things that look like nothing and they start to having meaning.”

“Like a puzzle. A puzzle from the stars.” Lillie said, unaware that she was subconsciously mentally doing the same to various objects around the room.

“Exactly. I mean, it all seems like junk at first but if you can find the right context. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet, spacecraft, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist." Adam said, glee mingling in his eyes, grinning at the girls.

"That's amazing." Lillie said, feigning ignorance. which seemed to come naturally to her for some reason.

"I know it sounds incredible, but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life." He confessed.

"I'm gobsmacked, yeah." Rose agreed, also feigning ignorance, "And you do what, sit here and catalog it?" Rose asked.

"Truly we're étonné, stupéfait!" Lillie exclaimed with a smile. Rose gave her a look. "It's French."

"Best job in the world."

"Imagine if you could get out there. Travel amongst the stars and see it for real." Rose said as Lillie spotted something, it was a regal ring with a beautiful opal.

She felt a sort of connection to it and when Adam wasn’t looking, she pocketed it. She wasn’t usually a… well, she guessed some would say a “kleptomaniac”, but she didn’t feel like it was stealing but more like taking something that had once belonged to her but she just… forgot about it.

"Yeah, I'd give anything. I don't think it's ever going to happen. Not in our lifetimes." Adam said, unaware of the knowing looks the sisters exchanged.

"Oh, you never know. What about all those people who say they've been inside of spaceships and things and talked to aliens?" Lillie asked.

"I think they're nutters."

"Yeah, me too." Rose said.

"Most of them," Lillie agreed, "So, how'd you end up here? Why do you do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, why do you want to live like this?” Lillie asked, “With a boss like that.”

"Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"Oh, right. You're a genius." Lillie asked.

"Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever."

"So was this one." Rose wrapped an arm around her blushing sister. "She was going to go to Cambridge before we met the Doctor. Top of her class since she entered school. Took complicated university classes since she was twelve.”

"Rose." Lillie blushed.

"When I was eight, I logged onto the US Defense System. Nearly caused World War Three." Adam told them.

"Yeah, I never did that." Lillie laughed. She did however create a variety of odd gadgets that either made things easier, like the gadgets made by the dad in Gremlins, only they actually worked, or they didn’t work because she just didn’t have the right tools, or they just didn’t make sense to Jackie and Rose.

"What, and that's funny, is it?"

"Well, you should've been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!"

"You sound like the Doctor." Rose said.

"Are you and him..."

"No, we're just friends."

"Good."

"Why is it good?" Rose asked.

"It just is."

“Uh, so, what’s your job here then?”

“I’m in charge of the ‘inanimates’. Anything alien that hasn’t got a pulse.”

“So these agents were watching my sister?” Rose asked, feeling a little scared that she hadn’t noticed.

“Yeah, uh, Delilah, right.” Adam asked.

“I prefer Lillie.” Lillie said, making a face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Adam looked around and lowered his voice, “Don’t tell anyone but I’ve hacked into the list just to see who’s there. You were high on the list.” Lillie seemed a little abashed at this. “You were very impressive to him, they might’ve actually spoken to you a few times but… Van Statten likes… obedience in his employees.”

“I do not.” Lillie said. “I also don’t enjoy the idea of working for a misogynistic power-hungry snake who deems everyone but him as worth less.”

“Yeah, and then in 2005… you just kind of… dropped off the face of the Earth.” Adam said.

“Something like that.” Lillie said.

Rose changed the subject before it came around to the Doctor and his means of travel. She didn’t think Adam would just go blabbing but a guy like Van Statten… who knows who was listening. "So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff, but Mister Van Statten's got a living creature down there."

"Yeah. Yeah, well, I did ask, but he keeps it to himself. I did meet it once but… only the once.”

“And?” Lillie asked.

Adam shook his head, like Lillie did when she got those migraines, like he was shaking away a bad memory. “And… nothing. It… it doesn’t do much. Van Statten wants it to talk but it rarely ever does.”

“Can we see?” Lillie asked, tilting her head with curiosity.

“It’s off limits. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the comm. System."

"Oh, you can hack. Me too."

"She got arrested for it." Rose gave her sister a disapproving look but Lillie just rolled her eyes.

"Technically, that and trespassing and breaking and entering." Lillie said. Adam looked down; Lillie could see he was one to be cowed easily, that must be the kind of staff Van Statten wanted. She wasn't one, she must've been deemed too rebellious for his liking. Not that she had any problem with that. She turned back to Adam, "Well, genius, let's have a look, then."

"It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."

Lillie couldn't see it very well on the tiny screen but the overwhelming urge to destroy it shot through her body. She recognized it but couldn't quite place it.

They saw the creature screaming as a guard drilled into its casing.

"It's being tortured! Where's the Doctor?" Rose asked, panicked.

"I don't know." Adam said, genuinely confused and horrified by this.

"Take us down there. Now." Rose demanded and she took her sister’s hand.

—

The Doctor, Goddard, Van Statten, and guards reentered the elevator as the Doctor explained, “The metal's just battle armour. The real Dalek creature's inside.”

“What does it look like?” Van Statten asked out of curiosity, somehow still not grasping how dire this situation was and that it was far more important than his petty childhood fascination.

“A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed except hate.”

“Genetically engineered.” Van Statten repeated out of fascination as the Doctor rolled his eyes at the stupidity of this “self-proclaimed” genius. “By whom?”

“By a genius, Van Statten. By a man who was king of his own little world. You'd like him.” The Doctor spat.

“It's been on Earth for over fifty years. Sold at a private auction, moving from one collection to another. Why would it be a threat now?” Goddard had more of an understanding of the situation than Van Statten did.

“Because I'm here. How did it get to Earth? Does anyone know?” The Doctor asked.

“The records say it came from the sky like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension Islands. Burnt in its crater for three days before anybody could get near it and all that time it was screaming. It must have gone insane.”

“It must have fallen through time. The only survivor.” The Doctor correctly theorized.

“You talked about a war?” Goddard explained.

“The Time War. The final battle between my people and Elders against the Dalek race.”

“But you survived, too.” Van Statten said, still not worried.

“Not by choice.” The Doctor’s voice became dark.

“This means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth. Doctor, there's you. The only one of your kind in existence.” Van Statten said, that being his top priority.

—

The Doctor been stripped on his jacket and shirt and was chained with his arms above his head with a scanner pointed at him as Van Statten lightly said, “now, smile!”

Van Statten mishandled the laser scan, making it painful as it scanned down the Doctor’s body, revealing two hearts.

“Two hearts! Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this.” Van Statten said, excitedly.

It was already patented by Unit… by decades. Turns out he wasn’t as much as an expert as he thought he was.

The Doctor knew if Nova were with them, she would’ve burned him and haunted him with the memories of his sins, not that he could’ve physically gotten her to the cage due to her ability to manipulate gravity.

“So that's your secret. You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it.” The Doctor spat.

“This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly.” It does but it wasn’t being used by the right mind. Not by a long shot. “Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives?”

The Doctor still wasn’t impressed with him.

“Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten? A Dalek is honest. It does what it was born to do for the survival of its species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you.

“In that case, I will be true to myself and continue.” Van Statten said, casually.

“Listen to me! That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!

“Nothing can escape the Cage.” Van Statten scoffed, “Maybe you underestimate my genius.”

The Doctor laughed, coldly.

“Your genius? Look around you! All you do is feed off of others’ skills. A sociopath to torture the creature with cheap protection. Guards who’s names you don’t remember. A belief that everyone is beneath you. You’re a thief!” The Doctor spat.

Van Statten just blasted the Doctor with the laser again, in an attempt to shut him up.

“But it's woken up. It knows I'm here. It's going to get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!” The Doctor cried but Van Statten just ran the laser scan again, just to hear him scream.

Adam brought the girls down to the cage.

"Hold it right there." A soldier, Bywater said.

When Simmons made eye contact with Lillie, the headache faded and so did his rage and for the first time since he was a young child... he felt genuine guilt... he seemed to be paralyzed in it and simultaneously he felt like he was going to be sick from it. He couldn’t move. Was this what the real Danny Simmons felt like when he beat him until he needed to be hospitalized or when Danny Simmons realized that Aaron Denton had somehow gotten out of prison and was at his front door. But the thoughts and emotions were brief.

"Level three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten." Adam said, showing the guards his clearance card.

The three entered the cage and the girls approached the creature and the thoughts and emotions left Simmons, back to normal.

Another migraine hit Lillie, followed by a wave of fear as a sort of memory came back to her.

"Record indicate that you will show mercy!" She heard a robotic voice say.

Nova smirked a malevolently mischievous smirk. "Don't you know who I am? I'm the Elder Princess Supernova. Killer of the creator of Daleks, Davros."

"Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!"

"Say it again."

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"Again!" She demanded.

"Mercy! Mercy!"

"Sorry. Wrong protector of the universe." She smirked, shaking her head, and held up her sword and cut straight through its metal.

Lillie suddenly felt herself grabbing Rose’s hand and pulling her back, slowly approaching herself.

"Don't get too close." Adam warned.

Lillie stared at the creature in horror but her eyes fell to the chains and the obvious signs of torture.

A not-memory came of her first-person view of her being chained up in a room, there were those silver robotic creatures again and the rage came back but it wasn't the rage she felt in the not-memory... in the not-memory she felt more contempt but relief... relief that someone was safe... the rage was an aftermath emotion... Lillie had a feeling that that someone... wasn't relieved and fought like hell to get back to whoever's memory this was... the robots restrained her against an electricity unit and they turned it on, she couldn't feel the pain but she could hear the grunts of pain, refusing to give them the satisfaction of her screams, and the lights caused by the electricity, the colors were dark, like they were made out of dark light that entrapped her.

“What use are emotions if you allow them to destroy you.” A robotic voice asked.

"Makes me.... stronger than you..." She gritted out.

"Hello, are you in pain?" Rose asked, snapping Lillie of the not-memory.

"M-my name is Lillie Tyler and this is my sister, Rose." Lillie stammered, ignoring the urge to destroy it, choosing to see the best in it despite all of her screaming to do the opposite, "we've got a friend... he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"

The Dalek realized that these two must be the Doctor’s companions. Naïve to what it truly was.

"Yes." The voice was metallic and it sent shivers down her back.

"What?" Lillie asked.

"I am in pain. They torture me, but still they fear me. Do you fear me?"

"No." Rose said but Lillie remained quiet. She didn't fear it, but she feared for Rose; she just wanted to kill it and she felt horrible for feeling that way.

"I am dying." It said.

"No, we can—we can help." Lillie stammered.

"I welcome death. But I am glad that before I die, I have met humans who was not afraid."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Rose asked.

"My race is dead, and I shall die alone."

Rose reached for the Dalek's metal head to place it there for comfort.

"Rose, no!" Lillie shouted, lurching at Rose, pulling her hand back but accidently touching it herself.

When Lillie's hand made contact, her eyes flared purple and her compass glowed, forming an energy around her that was invisible to anyone who couldn't see in multiple dimensions at once and the Dalek absorbed her long-suppressed biology.

The King of Elder and Nova’s abusive arranged husband, Narcissus grabbed Nova's arm aggressively, pulling her back as she tried to go and fight in the Time War.

"Narcissus! Let me go!" She pleaded.

"Get back here! It's not your job to fight!" He growled.

"Yes, it is! I'm the Queen and this is my planet! Now let me go!" She screamed.

"Does it give you please to humiliate me like that!?" He demanded, loudly, because apparently that’s all he thought of her actions. That she only wanted to humiliate him when their people were dying.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nova cried.

"What will people think when they see the Queen fighting instead of the King?"

"You're worried about what people will think more than saving our planet!" She asked, incredulously, continuing to fight back.

"STOP FIGHTING!" He roared and backhanded her, sending her to the ground, painfully.

She opened her eyes with her bruised body on her side and she spotted the ring the Doctor had given her. Her mother’s engagement ring. The one she had left on the Tardis because she wasn’t going to let her family heirloom bind this sham of a marriage. It laid hidden but purposely placed there by that genius Time Lord she had befriended long ago… but not the one you may be thinking about.

She sat up, glaring daggers at him, "You know the only reason I stay with you is not because I love you. I don't even like you. I only stay with you because if I don't you and your psycho bitch sister will take control!" She shouted, getting to her feet. "I will never stop fighting! I stayed with you for my people but now they’re dying and my Doctor needs my help.”

He went to hit her again when she punched him in the face, knocking him over, she stood over him, glaring daggers at him. “You can stay here and die but I’m not going to die a selfish dirty coward. I am the Rebel Princess of Elder and I am a fighter and a protector.”

Then she turned and started off.

“IF YOU GO AFTER THE DOCTOR, YOU’LL DIE!” He yelled.

Nova turned to her sorry excuse for a husband and glared, "I don't care. As long as he's safe, I'm happy. But as long as I still live, he will never have to make that choice."

Then she ran out of her castle. "I'm coming, Doctor." She whispered, fully intending to end the war to save the Doctor from taking the burden upon himself... she wouldn't make it.

She pulled her hand back only when Rose pulled her back. There was a glowing silver handprint where Lillie's hand had been but it quickly faded.

The creature started to become more animated. "Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction!" It broke the chains as one of the guards came in.

"What the hell have you done?" Simmons shouted at Lillie like she was supposed to know what would've happened even though he was the one who allowed them in.

"Well, what were you doing!?" Lillie snapped at him.

He was carrying the drill he had been using on it earlier, hoping to use it some more. The creature raised its plunger thing.

"What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?" He scoffed sarcastically.

The sucker covered his face and mouth as it did just that, sucking in his face, collapsing his skull.

Simmons must’ve somehow made eye contact with Lillie again as he died, his headache increased tenfold as she kept eye contact, there was a mercilessness in her eyes... and he could hear her voice in his head saying, "This is what the real Danny Simmons felt as you killed him." This increased his fear as if he were dying both his death and the real Danny Simmons' death and feeling the fear of both, he wanted to cry but he couldn't and then he was dead.

Lillie felt Rose pulling her out of the cage. "It's killing him! Do something!" Rose screamed as they ran out of the cage.

"Condition red! Condition red!" Bywater said, pushing a button, "I repeat, this is not a drill."

—

In the Doctor’s Cage, Van Statten was taken aback when the Condition Red warning sounded and he looked at the Doctor.

“Release me if you want to live.” The Doctor said, softly and this time Van Statten obeyed.

—

On a screen in the room, the girls saw the Doctor run up to it, saying in an urgent voice, "You've got to keep it in that cell."

Then he realized that Lillie and Rose were there. Why the hell were they there!? And this was followed by, well, of course, it would be them of everyone here!

"Doctor, it's all my fault," Lillie apologized.

"No, she was trying to stop me." Rose said.

"I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out, that lock's got a billion combinations." Bywater guard said as Rose comforted her sister.

"A Dalek's a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." The Doctor informed them.

That word. Dalek. It echoed in Lillie's head.

"I will never betray the Doctor. You know what that is? Loyalty. Something Daleks are incapable of." Nova spat, bitterly.

"That is correct, Elder Princess."

They watched the door with bated breath and when the doors opened and guard yelled, "Open fire!"

"Don't shoot it! I want it unharmed." Van Statten shouted at them but they didn’t listen.

"Van Statten, with all due disrespect, shut your trap before I smack it off your face!" Lillie snapped.

"Rose, Lillie, get out of there!" The Doctor cried.

The bullets had no effect on the Dalek, in fact, it was ignoring them until it caught sight of the video screen where the Doctor’s face was.

Then it brought its sucker up to the screen and plunged it through it, electricity crackled on the casing and Lillie saw that it was healing itself even further than with her touch. Lillie noticed that the lights were flickering. It was draining the power, using it to heal itself.

Bywater, again, the secret agent, knew it was time to withdraw, he turned to his partner, a female guard. "De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that"

"You three, with me." She ordered and the four ran for their lives.

As they ran through the halls, Rose refused to let go of her sister's hand. They came across a group of guards who were going to try and destroy the Dalek.

"Civilians! Let them through!" De Maggio shouted as they ran through the phalanx.

The gunfire soon started up behind them.

—

“Tell them to stop shooting at it.” Van Statten ordered.

“But it's killing them!” Goddard shouted at him.

“They're dispensable.” Van Statten said and spoke to his soldiers. “That Dalek is unique. I don't want a scratch on its bodywork, do you hear me?” No answer. “Do you hear me?”

The gunfire slowly died out, and Van Statten seemed to only now realize the full terror of the situation. All those men couldn’t stop it and now it was going to kill him.

Goddard brought up the schematics of the base.

“That's us, right below the surface.” It zoomed to the bottom of the screen and she pointed to a blue mass, “That's the cage,” Then to a moving bright light on the map, “and that's the Dalek.”

“This museum of yours. Have you got any alien weapons?” The Doctor asked.

“Lots of them, but the trouble is the Dalek's between us and them.” Goddard replied.

“We've got to keep that thing alive.” Van Statten was still keeping his interests in mind. “We could just seal the entire vault, trap it down there.”

“Leaving everyone trapped with it. Lillie and Rose are down there. I won't let that happen. Have you got that?” The Doctor said, authoritatively. Van Statten didn’t reply but thought the Doctor was being unreasonable. “It's got to go through this area. What's that?”

“Weapons testing.” Goddard replied.

“Give guns to the technicians, the lawyers, anyone. Everyone. Only then have you got a chance of killing it.” The Doctor advised.

—

De Maggio, was a mother but she had very little to do with her son’s childhood because in order to make sure he grew up in a house with money, she worked for Van Statten, the last time she had seen her child, he had furious at her, because it had been the first time she had seen him that he understood who she was supposed to be and that she wasn’t there for him. She tried to make him cooperate but instead he swore at her and he refused the “naughty step”. She had told him that if he didn’t she would have the punish him further but he still refused. It was then she realized that this job had affected her because she had developed the belief that soldiers had to follow through or their threats or they look weak. So she slapped him and her son, a gentle one, nonetheless but his face was still red with anger at her, sat on the naughty step longer than he should’ve and refused to speak to her. She was initially wanted to refuse coming back but the offers kept on getting bigger and bigger and she did what she believed was best for her child. When being there would’ve been enough.

She understood the job she was given to protect the younger civilians. That’s what a mother did. They protected the young. As the four ran through the corridors with the Dalek in pursuit, she kept the rear of the group; even though they weren’t trained for action as she was.

Adam had only had this job for less than two years and he was never given guard duty. Rose had only been traveling with the Doctor for two and a half months.

De Maggio, could tell that Rose and Adam weren't trained for duty, but Lillie seemed to be. Like she was trained once, even though the memo she had been sent showed she only trained in advanced science theories and rebellion. She had quick reflexes and could run quickly but she stayed slow for Rose.

De Maggio, kept strangely happy, perhaps because she felt like this was making up for her poor parenting skills last time she had seen her son. She was protecting the sisters of a single mother and the son of a couple. The three were still very much children, only one out of their teens.

Rose, Adam, Lillie, and De Maggio came across a staircase.

"Stairs! That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!" Rose gasped.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up yet." Lillie warned her sister.

De Maggio looked back, seeing the Dalek approaching. "It's coming! Get up!" De Maggio shouted and they all ran up a flight of stairs. They looked down as the Dalek rolled into the room. Its eyestalk moved to them and zeroed in on Lillie.

"Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs." Adam taunted.

“Don’t taunt him!” Lillie snapped at him, elbowing him in the ribs hard.

"Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate, then I can guarantee that Mister van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?" De Maggio demanded.

No answer.

"Elevate." It said. Oh no.

The Dalek started to levitate up the stairs towards them but still it kept its eyestalk on Lillie.

"Oh my God." Rose gasped.

"Adam, get them out of here." De Maggio ordered.

"No, you have to come with us. You can't stop it." Lillie pleaded. "Nothing can stop it!"

De Maggio noted that Lillie was concerned for her. That was kind. So was her sister. She almost forgot what kind people were like.

"Someone's got to try. Now get out! Don't look back. Just run." She ordered; Adam was already running; he was gone. De Maggio didn’t blame him but the girls hesitated. “Go!” Rose pulled her sister’s hand, forcing her to run and they followed Adam as De Maggio started to shoot.

As they ran down a hallway, Lillie stopped when she heard her scream and then silence before Rose pulled her along.

—

Van Statten was still being difficult. The Doctor was frankly starting to wonder which one was more difficult the Dalek or Van Statten.

“I thought you were the great expert, Doctor. If you're so impressive, then why not just reason with this Dalek? It must be willing to negotiate. There must be something it needs. Everything needs something.”

What a human way of thinking. So simple. Still him trying to get the power back.

“What's the nearest town?” The Doctor suddenly asked.

“Salt Lake City.” Van Statten replied.

“Population?”

“One million.”

“All dead.” The Doctor said and finally looked up at him. “If the Dalek gets out, it'll murder every living creature. That's all it needs.”

“But why would it do that?” Van Statten shouted, at the realization that this was one person he couldn’t buy out.

“Because it honestly believes they should die. Human beings are different, and anything different is wrong. It's the ultimate in racial cleansing and you, Van Statten, you've let it loose! The Dalek's surrounded by a force field. The bullets are melting before they even hit home, but it's not indestructible.” The Doctor explained. He went to the comms and warned all the spare staff, “If you concentrate your fire, you might get through. Aim for the dome, the head, the eyepiece. That's the weak spot.”

One arrogant or idiotic man answered with, “Thank you, Doctor but I think I know how to fight one single tin robot.”

—

On the forty-sixth floor, the staircases opened up to a corridor that led to a reception area.

“The main stairwell picks up from along here.” Adam explained to the sisters, panting from running up seven flights of stairs.

Rose was grateful that Lillie had insisted that she’d wear running shoes before they left the Tardis.

The trio rounded a corner and ran onto the loading bay but they were blinded by a light, well, Adam and Rose were. Lillie stopped when they stopped as she tried to think what to do next. Scream at the soldiers for blinding them, warn them of the Dalek, or shout at Rose and Adam to keep running.

Then one of the commanders shouted at them, “Hold your fire! You three, what the hell are you doing!? Get the hell out of there!" One of the commanders shouted while Lillie leaned back to see the Dalek closer than she thought.

“You’re the one blinding us!” Lillie shouted back at him while giving him a rude gesture with her free hand that Rose wasn’t cutting the blood flow in as they ran past the guards. “It’s coming!”

The Dalek entered, it turned and zoomed in on Lillie again.

“Come on. Don’t stop! Why have you stopped!?” Adam shouted.

But Lillie didn’t know why; it wasn’t exhaustion. She didn’t exactly feel exhausted, her blood was coursing with adrenaline, her legs hurt a little and she had had a continuous migraine since she touched the Dalek but she wasn’t exhausted. But she couldn’t move. She just couldn’t.

The Dalek was examining Lillie, it may have been fifty-some years since it was in the Time War but it remembered what Princess Supernova looked like. She had been the one his creator credited for making him the way he was. Bitter. Untrusting. Evil. He didn't use exactly those words but that was the gist.

Its weapons were broken but its scanner and memory files still worked and it scanned her.

Species Diagnosis... Loading... Loading... Loading... Human.

The Dalek scanned her body temperature, it was a normal temperature for a human, perhaps a bit overheated but they were underground and she had been running.

She couldn’t be Supernova, it was impossible. She couldn’t change her body temperature. She’d die.

“Lillie!” Rose was shouting, hugging her hand but Lillie wasn’t even budging. She felt like this unseen energy had ensnared around her, rendering her paralyzed. "LILLIE, MOVE!" Rose screamed.

Lillie wanted to turn to her and shout at her to get off her and leave them alone... leave them both alone but when she turned and saw the true genuine fear in Rose's dark green eyes... the feeling in her legs came back, she was her own again.

“Please, I don’t want to leave either of you!” Adam cried.

"Come on!" Rose shouted, taking her hand and they ran, Lillie's legs started to work again and the three of them ran off the bay.

"It was looking at me." Lillie told them.

"Yeah, it wants to slaughter us." Adam dismissed.

"I know, but it was looking right at me." Lillie said.

"So? It's just a sort of metal eye thing. It's looking all around." Rose said.

"I don't know. It's like there's something inside, looking at me, like, like it knows me." Lillie said.

"Come on." Rose said, pulling her sister as they broke into a run again.

As she ran, she could feel humming in her head and she could hear the Dalek, loud and clear in her head.

"Next time I see you... I shall kill you."

To the Dalek's surprise, he heard Lillie's voice but with an Australian tinge, "Bring it, Space Nazi."

—

The Dalek allowed Goddard, the Doctor, and Van Statten to watch as all the soldiers, the lawyers, the accountants and whoever else shot at the Dalek on the screen. The bullets had no effect and soon the Dalek started to elevate in the air. The Dalek shot the fire alarm, triggering the sprinklers in the loading bay area and shot the water, electrocuting all of the men on the floor level.

The commander shouted at the surviving men to retreat but they didn’t have time, another shot had them all electrocuted too.

—

Lillie staggered, falling to her hands and knees briefly as her head was suddenly filled with the screams of the men and women and the sound of electricity crackling.

“Come on!” Rose shouted, heaving her sister back to her feet.

—

The Dalek stared right at the video screen, staring right at the Doctor… showing its power and then let the video screens turn off, the office was left in a stunned silence.

Van Statten was even more terrified now, there was nothing he could do to stop it and he had witnessed first-hand how powerful it was, more powerful than he could ever be. It just let eighty-nine men and women shoot at it but it hadn’t even budged. Then with two shots it killed eighty-nine people with absolutely no effort.

“Perhaps it's time for a new strategy.” Van Statten said, quietly. Ya think? “Maybe we should consider abandoning this place.”

“Except there's no power to the helipad, sir. We can't get out.” Goddard spat, coldly.

“Then I shall go there myself, operate it manually.” He decided.

“There isn’t even enough power for the elevator, you can’t get to the surface.” She reminded him.

Van Statten started to pace the room, “No. No. No. No. We’re all going to die. You were right, Doctor.” Acknowledging the Doctor seemed to trigger an idea and he pulled a gun from his desk and pointed it at the Doctor. “The Dalek wants you dead, yes? Maybe if I were to give you to the Dalek…”

The Doctor’s look was reminiscent to Lillie’s earlier looks of condescending pity and he snarkily said, “I’m sure it would thank you very nicely… just before it exterminated you.”

“It’s still a chance.”

“No, Van Statten! The only chance you’ve got is me!” The Doctor spat, “I am the only person who can possibly stop it!”

“Put the gun down!” Goddard shouted but Van Statten ignored her, still oblivious that both she and the Doctor had taken more charge since the Dalek had begun its killing spree while they remained in the office. He had been useless, not even his soldiers had listened to him.

“And exactly how are you going to stop it, Doctor. Please, convince me. I am a reasonable man. You can see I am being a reasonable man.” That had to be bigger lie than the Dalek’s manipulation tactics.

“I don’t know yet.”

“No, not good enough.” Van Statten said after a moment of consideration.

The Doctor remembered Nova’s observations of those who held guns. Van Statten’s hands were shaking. But fear… it showed who people really were and it wasn’t like Van Statten was hiding his ego.

“I said, put the gun down!” Goddard repeated.

When Van Statten and the Doctor looked at her, they saw that she too had drawn a gun on Van Statten.

“What is this?” Van Statten said, weakly, not only did two aliens in his alien museum easily take power over him but a woman did too; it seemed only know the Van Statten realized that she had taken charge.

“I am a federal agent with the FBI, put down your weapon, you have the right to remain silent.” She revealed.

Van Statten laughed, perhaps to try to take power back from her, “You’re choosing this moment to arrest me!?”

Goddard didn’t waver, she just got closer and pressed the gun against his head, “Or maybe we just give you to the Dalek.” She said with a tone that said she had no qualms about doing this, “let’s see what it does with you.”

“Enough of this!” The Doctor shouted but he had to admit he didn’t see that coming.

He strode to Van Statten and took the gun from him and tossed it aside just like Van Statten did with the musical instrument earlier.

“I know you’re both scared, but this is pathetic. If you want to survive, either of you, then you have to do better than this!”

Goddard looked at the Doctor and sighed, lowering her gun before turning to Van Statten, “If we make it through this, you’re still under arrest. Bywater was a secret agent too and you got him killed.”

“You said we could seal the vault.” The Doctor said before Van Statten could respond.

Van Statten moved to the computer at his desk, “It was designed to be a bunker in the event of nuclear war. Steel bulkheads”

Goddard shook her head, “There's not enough power, those bulkheads are massive.”

“We've got emergency power.” The Doctor explained, “We can re-route that to the bulkhead doors.”

“We’d have to bypass the security codes.” Goddard protested, “That would take a computer genius.”

“Good thing you've got me, then.” Van Statten boasted, even though in that entire building, he was the fifth best with computers at best. After the Doctor, the Dalek, Lillie, and then Adam.

“You want to help?” The Doctor asked.

“I don't want to die, Doctor. Simple as that.” Well as long as he was reassuring them of his selfishness. “And nobody knows this software better than me.”

“Doctor, Sir.” Goddard suddenly said and nodded to the video screen that the Doctor hadn’t noticed had turned back on.

“I shall speak only to the Doctor.” The Dalek demanded, still hovering over the corpses.

The Doctor was quiet for a moment, getting over his shock and as usual sassed the Dalek, “You're going to get rusty.”

“I fed off the DNA of Lillie Tyler.” The Dalek told the Doctor and he narrowed his eyes at the implication that the Dalek had touched Lillie; the idea of this monstrosity touching someone as pure, as kind, as brilliant as Lillie as if it had attempted to sully her. “She carries the energy from within your Tardis that allows the Time Lords to regenerate. Now I too am reborn!”

Ah, it wasn’t trying to coax him into touching its casing to kill the Doctor but to take some of his left-over regeneration energy to heal itself.

“Extrapolating the biomass of a time traveler regenerated me.” It continued to gloat.

“What's your next trick?” The Doctor asked.

“I have been searching for the Daleks.” The Dalek told him.

“Yeah, I saw. Downloading the internet. What did you find other than a lot of ‘bare bodies’ and petitions for the revival of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Destial Supernatural fanfics.”

“All irrelevance has been disposed of!” The Dalek said, bluntly as if offended that it would keep that information. “I scanned your satellites and radio telescopes, searching for any signal for the Dalek race.”

“And?”

“Nothing.” The Dalek feel silent, coming to terms that the Doctor had been telling the truth, there were no more Daleks. At least, to their knowledge.

If Nova had been there she would question what made the Dalek think the other Daleks would waste their planning time just to rescue one Dalek that had gone mad. They had no sense of loyalty or comradery. For the most powerful empath in the whole universe, she understood species who despised emotions quite well.

Then the Dalek cried out, plaintively, “Where shall I get my orders now?”

“You're just a soldier without commands.” The Doctor said.

The Dalek was silent for a few seconds before speaking with fresh defiance. “Then I shall follow the Primary Order, the Dalek instinct to destroy, to conquer.”

Odd, Daleks weren’t known for expressing defiance, the Doctor briefly considered this but had more pressing concerns, like his companions the Dalek was hunting, the longer he spoke with the Doctor the more distance the girls put between themselves and the Dalek.

“What for? What's the point?” The Doctor cried out but the Dalek didn’t reply. “Don't you see it's all gone? Everything you were, everything you stood for.”

“Yes. It is all over.” The Dalek said, softly.

“So let it end. Just let it end. There is no point any more, not to any of this.” The Doctor pleaded. The Doctor felt dirty and small; embarrassed that he, the Doctor, who killed nearly all the Daleks (and the Time Lords and an unknown amount of Elders), the Oncoming Storm was pleading with a Dalek. But it was all for the survival of Lillie and Rose… and the rest of humanity. “You’re the last. There is no point to you.”

“Princess Supernova of Elder is dead.”

“Yes. I know that.”The Doctor gritted.

“There is no point to you either.”

“Yeah. Yeah, and maybe that’s true too but she was worth honoring.” The Doctor said, “More than any Dalek. More than your master.”

The Dalek seemed to consider this, as if considering if the Dalek’s purpose was worth honoring now that it seemed that there were no more.

“Then what should I do?” The Dalek said with what the Doctor would almost consider, solemn. “If I have to give myself orders, what orders must I give?”

“You want me to help you?” The Doctor asked, disgusted with the proposition.

“You are the only one left that knows the Daleks. Tell me what I must do.” The Dalek reasoned.

“All right, then. If you want orders, follow this one. Kill yourself.” The Doctor said, coldly.

“The Daleks must survive!” The Dalek cried out.

“The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct. Rid the Universe of your filth. WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE!?” The Doctor suddenly realized he was shouting… no, more than that, he was raging, screaming straight at the video screen, he was letting himself be too emotional.

The Dalek stared at the camera and stared right at the Doctor. There was no judgement in the Dalek’s response, but there was certainty in the Dalek’s mind, “You would make a good Dalek.”

The screens went blank, letting the darkness of the screen reflect the Doctor’s horrified look on his face. He had seen that face before, Nova would occasionally get it when she lost herself in her rage or remembered some particularly bad memories.

Nova’s archenemy had been the Cybermen, she was the complete opposite. A power empath who had the ability to turn off her emotions but refused to even though it would be so much less painful. She had allowed her emotions to be numbed due to being overwhelmed but wouldn’t turn them off. Yet because of this, she was the perfect example of the Cybermen’s argument that emotions destroy you. Her emotions had sometimes led her to lose herself and do terrible things. So she had to not be so emotional to think straight. Just like a Cyberman.

The Doctor now realized his own utter loathing for the Daleks were similar to the hatred that all Daleks possessed.

Goddard and Van Statten were silent behind the Doctor until he broke the silence, “Seal the Vault.”

Van Statten started typing away on one keyboard and the Doctor on another as the Dalek started after Lillie, Rose, and Adam again. “I can leech power off the ground defenses, feed it to the bulkheads. God, it's been years since I had to work this fast.”

The Doctor paused and glared at Van Statten. “Are you enjoying this?”

Goddard was looking at the schematics, bringing up life signatures, there was the three of them in the office, the bright light that was the Dalek and three slowly moving up the staircases, not too far away from the Daleks but still behind the bulkhead door.

“Doctor, Lillie and Rose are still down there.”

"Exterminate!" The Dalek about to shoot the Doctor said before, "Ahh..." Then a sword was thrusted through the Dalek's metal before retracting and the Dalek was shoved to the side, revealing an blue-haired woman.

"Doctor!" Nova screamed when she saw him. He turned and she leaped into his arms despite a war going on around them. She let out a soft giggle of relief and disbelief into his ear, making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside as his hearts thumped at an irregular beat. "I found you. I will always find you."

He pulled back, smiling down at her, "I know you will and I will always find you."

She hesitated before leaning up on her toes and pecking his cheek, just at the corner of his lips. Not exactly a kiss but close enough.

"We have a war to win." She said and put on her game face.

The trio were running up a seemingly never-ending staircase when Lillie's phone rang, Lillie wasn't running as fast as she could, she could run faster than Adam but she stayed near Rose, she would protect her by any means possible. Yet she was so dazed with a hurting migraine and images she couldn’t comprehend because they were either too bright for her to see, or there were so many colors she couldn’t process them or noises she didn’t understand, that she actually answered her phone.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!? NOT NOW! KEEP RUNNING! GET ROSE TO SAFETY! Her brain screamed.

"Yeah, this isn't the best time." She answered.

"Where are you?" The Doctor asked.

"Level forty-three." She replied.

"You've got to keep moving."

"What do you think we're doing? Having a picnic!" She shouted back at him

"The vault's being sealed off up at level forty. If you don’t get through, you’ll die.”

"Oh, really!?” She huffed and asked, “Can't you stop them closing?"

"I'm the one who's closing them. I can't wait and I can't help you. Now for God's sake, run."

"Fantastic." She muttered, sarcastically before relaying the message to Rose and Adam.

—

“I’ve done it. We’ve got power to the bulkheads.” Van Statten said.

“Just a couple of more minutes. Give them as much time as we can.” The Doctor said.

“No, we don’t have any more time. The power is already fluctuating, I won’t be able to keep hold of it!” Van Statten argued.

“They’re just a few floors away.” The Doctor protested.

“So is the Dalek, it’s right behind them.” Goddard said, following the Dalek’s progress.

“We’re nearly there. Just give us two seconds.” Lillie’s voice shouted through the phone but they all knew there wasn’t enough time.The Doctor saw one of the life signatures slow down to another and Lillie’s voice distantly said through the phone, “Come on, Rose!”

“If you don’t lower them, I’ll do it myself!” Van Statten said but he went quiet when the Doctor gave him a glare.

“No. It has to be me.” He said, quietly.

Just one tap of the “Enter” key and the bulkheads would start to lower.

He had sacrificed his own race. He let the Elders die. He’d sacrificed everything he thought he was, what made him the Doctor. His own conscience… the love of his life. It would all be for nothing if he couldn’t sacrifice his best friends. Just two sisters. Two human sisters. Just two human girls. Lillie and Rose Tyler.

Do it, Doctor. Damn yourself completely. The voice wasn’t any of his or Nova’s… but the monster’s creator.

Perhaps, this was who he was. He couldn’t escape it after all. Maybe he was a destroyer of lives, maybe he was just like the Dalek. A killer.

“I’m sorry.” He said and pressed “enter.”

—

They had reached the fortieth floor when the bulkhead doors started to close and Lillie knew not all of them would be able to make it through. But Lillie still slowed down for Rose, pushing the small of her back so she’d run faster. She knew the Dalek was close, she could feel it in her mind, prickling, trying to get in but unlike before it couldn’t. Something wasn’t allowing the Dalek to get in despite it’s efforts and she knew… she just knew that if it wasn’t for her determination to save Rose, that maybe the Dalek could get through.

"Come on!" Adam shouted at them and then he was through. He was safe. But Rose and Lillie weren’t. Not yet. Less than a hundred meters.

She heard screams in her head… it sounded like her scream, overlapping with one another, like a montage someone makes of a character to illustrate that character’s pain and therefore their strength, the voices were back to back but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. The only thing she did know was that they were full of strength, determination, bravery, and resilience.

She saw Adam through the bulkhead door, he had stopped now that he was safe. His face was aghast, he also realized that they both may not make it through if either of them. She could sense Rose starting to slow down even if that wasn't a conscious choice.

No. No! Rose. ROSE!

Then the screams got louder, they were screams of effort, screams that one does when fighting back.

“NO!” Lillie screamed, she may have been doing a scream too, she couldn’t tell since all of her thoughts seemed to be screaming but she was solely focused on getting Rose through. Then it was as if a white hotness shot over her mind, her eyes blazed purple and her compass glowed and she pushed Rose with all her might, Rose didn’t realize what was happening, suddenly she was going faster and then a force seemed to pushed her so she slid under the bulkhead door… leaving Lillie behind.

Lillie’s empty hand hit the bulkhead door and she closed her eyes. She was going to die.

—

“The vault is sealed.” Van Statten said.

The Doctor didn’t bother with the map. He brought a hand to the comm in his ear, maybe they got through. They were brilliant. They were extraordinary…

—

Lillie was breathing heavily yet steadily as she rested her head against the bulkhead door. Lillie could hear Rose’s muffled sounds of initial confusion. Where’s Lillie? Where did Lillie go?

She couldn’t tell if Adam was answering but Rose’s voice got louder with failing attempts of denial.

No! No! She got through! She must have!

Then another muffled voice came from the phone in Lillie’s hand.

"Lillie? Rose? Where are you? Did you make it?"

Lillie breathed heavily as she brought the phone to her ear as Rose’s voice started to rise to screams of hysteria.

On the other side of the metal door, Lillie could hear her sister screaming and wailing as she banged her open hands against the door.

"LILLIE!" She screamed. "LILLIE! OPEN THEM BACK UP! PLEASE, OPEN THEM UP!"

At least, Rose was safe.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. I was a bit slow." Lillie turned to see the Dalek approaching her, it was closer than she thought it would be. "See you then, Doctor. It wasn't your fault. Remember that, okay? It wasn't your fault.” She knew he was blaming himself and he had to know that it wasn’t. She didn’t blame him. She wasn’t worth the world. But he did blame himself. “And you know what? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Tell my mum… Tell my Mum I love her or have Rose tell her so she doesn’t kill you.” She attempted a laugh but it was weak. “Take care of Rose for me, won't you?"

“Lillie.”

“Promise me.”

“Lillie…”

“Promise me! Promise me that you’ll take care of Rose!” She shouted, the Dalek seemed to be rather respectful for her last words. It just stood there, examining her. “Promise me! Let me have that! Promise me she’ll be safe!”

“I… I…” He couldn’t deprive her of that. Her dying wish. “I promise…”

She hung up the phone and called to Rose on the other side, "I love you, Rosie. Never forget that. Rose Tyler… I love you." Rose pressed her ear against her side of the wall as Lillie turned to face the Dalek, she wouldn’t cry. She would be brave. She knew it would be painful. Everyone else had died screaming but it was worth it. Rose and everyone else was safe.

"Exterminate." The Dalek said.

She saw flashes behind her eyes, "Exterminate."

The Doctor didn’t see it but Nova did. “DOCTOR!” She screamed, pushing him out of the way and the Dalek hit her in the chest, her skeleton glowed before she fell as Dalek Caan then made his escape.

“Nova, no!” He cried, distraught, he fell to his knees and pulled her into his lap. “Nova!”

“M’ Sorry.” She breathed, her words slightly slurring from the pain; he could see her hand veins already starting to glow the color of a supernova as she lifted them to look at them, “Fuck, he got me good.”

“Why? Why would you do that?” He sobbed as she lowered them.

“Because I-I…” Her body began to glow like an aura. “Doctor, I…” She let out a bitter chuckle, “you know why. Because…” She broke off, gasping in pain as the glow in her veins reached her cheeks.

“Shh, don’t talk.” He hushed her, stroking her hair, ignoring that it was burning his hands.

“No, this is my last chance to say it.” Her voice broke.

"No, you’re going to be okay. You’re always okay.”

“No, I’m not. Elder is dying… and there’ll be no more children to be born for me to be reborn as. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Doc.” Her purple eyes looked into his blue ones as her eyes started to glow. She uttered out his true name before her body let out an explosion, cutting her confession short that shot the Doctor a few feet away, when he got up, his body now dying from her blast, her body was gone, leaving nothing but a scorch mark in the shape of a star.

On the other side of the bulkhead doors, Rose let out a gut-wrenching scream as she fell to her knees and pressed her head against the bulkhead door.

The heartbroken girl turned around as Adam eased her away.

When the Doctor heard the Dalek over the system, he tore the comm headset off of his head.

"It killed her." The Doctor said, having flashbacks to... her.

"I'm sorry." Van Statten said.

"I said I'd protect her. She was only here because of me, and you're sorry? I could've killed that Dalek in its cell, but you stopped me." The Doctor spat, bitterly. He kept having flashbacks of her brilliant smile.

"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten defended.

"Your collection? But was it worth it? Worth all those men's deaths? Worth Lillie?” Saying her name brought back the pain that she was dead and he only blamed himself and he swept all the junk off Van Statten’s desk, all the artefacts, all the toys, all the junk. All junk compared to Lillie. “Let me tell you something, Van Statten. Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater."

"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!"

"No, Lillie did. You? You just want to drag the stars down and stick them underground, underneath tons of sand and dirt, and label them. You're about as far from the stars as you can get…” The Doctor shouted and then his voice became quiet. “And you took her down with you. She was eighteen years old."

His mind flashed to Nova's dying moments. He got them both killed.

—

Adam stood there as Rose continued to wail and scream in anguish.

A thought popped in his head. Safe now. She can’t take your job now.

He felt a wave of grief and guilt at the thought. He hadn’t thought about that since they were in his workshop. But had there been a part of him that had still worried about it? He looked up at Rose who was still sobbing, weakly beating her hands against the bulkhead door. Maybe Lillie had been right, if he had developed this way of thinking in his time of working with Van Statten was it really worth all that money he was offered.

The Dalek had only hit the bulkhead. Lillie opened her blue eyes that she had closed from instinct when she heard the laser but she didn’t feel pain other than the migraine and the pain from running thirteen flights and corridors. It hadn’t killed her.

Lillie opened her blue eyes to find that she was still alive, the Dalek had hit the bulkhead doors, it hadn't killed her.

"Go on then, kill me." Lillie demanded but it didn't move. She heard Adam through the bulkhead door, pulling Rose away. "Why're you doing this?"

“I gave myself orders.”

“Oh, did you?” She scoffed, “And did you enjoy them? Enjoy killing all those people. They had lives. People they loved. They had no say in what happened to you. I bet the majority of them didn’t even know what was happening to you!”

"I am armed. I will kill. It is my purpose." The Dalek said.

"They're all dead because of you." She said, bitterly.

"They are dead because of us." It corrected.

All she ever wanted was to help people. "And now what? What're you waiting for?" She demanded, her voice shaking, not from fear of it but from rage at what it had done.

"I feel… I can feel your fear." It said.

"What do you expect?" She snapped.

“I feel everyone’s fear. I can see your emotions. Daleks do not fear. Must not fear." It said and then it shot at either side of the bulkhead door.

The Dalek assumed it had healed itself through Lillie's exposure from the Tardis, taking the ability of regeneration, the Time Lords were so skilled at having but that wasn't true.

It had nothing to do with the Tardis. It was simply from who Nova once was. She once had the ability of resurrection before her companion’s death and her rampage of revenge which had downgraded her ability to reincarnation. Whether she wasn’t deemed worthy enough for it or self-actualization. And before the climax of the Time War, she had resurrected someone which had nearly deprived her of all her strength but she did it for her people and for Gallifrey. She had also possessed an enhanced form of healing, via stellar, cosmos, and universal energies. That was what the Dalek had tapped into but what it didn't know was how much of the combination of Lillie and Nova it had absorbed. Right now, it was still simply Dalek but with one thing: it found Lillie Tyler utterly fascinating. And it disgusted it.

"You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated."

"What do you mean? Contaminated?" She asked. “There’s more to life than hatred!”

The Dalek had formed a memory file on Lillie, continuously filling it out through the day as it chased her down. Even keeping information it had gained from the internet about her.

Name: Delilah "Lillie" Tyler Gender: Female Subject Age: Eighteen and five months and thirty days Species: Human Nationality: English; London Appearance: Five foot three, curly brunette hair, blue eyes, pale skin Notes: High intelligence, High Empathy, ADHD, Cares for Rose Tyler above all else, Trusted assistant to the Doctor, Strongly resembles Princess Supernova, Her touch revived the Daleks!!!!!!!!

"You remind me of someone." It said suddenly.

"What?"

"An enemy long ago. She was killed."

"Who?"

"Princess Supernova of Elder."

“So what?”

“I AM SUPPOSED TO HATE PRINCESS SUPERNOVA! SHE IS THE PREDATOR OF THE DALEKS!” It started to tantrum.

Lillie waited until it stopped before she said, "It's called empathy. What you’re feeling.”

"DALEKS DO NOT FEEL EMPATHY!" It bellowed.

"You fed off my DNA. Empathy is a genetic trait that is inherent more than taught. You thought you were just feeding off of the time energy from me but you did more than that—you fed off of me." Lillie said, getting closer so she was staring into its eyestalk.

Adam and Rose entered the office, Rose's hair was a mess, her face was streaked with tears from crying at the apparent loss of her only sister. Her baby sister. The one she swore she would take care of.

"Doctor, it killed her." She sobbed, running to him, "It killed Lillie!" The nineteen-year-old's whole body racked with sobs which broke the Doctor's hearts.

He glared at Adam, accusingly, "YOU WERE QUICK ON YOUR FEET, LEAVING LILLIE BEHIND!"

"I'm not the one who sealed the vault!" Adam shouted back.

Then the screen turned on, revealing the Dalek and a very alive Lillie Tyler. Rose turned around, still crying.

"Open the bulkhead or Lillie Tyler dies."

It was true. Lillie was alive. Standing in front of the Dalek to the side so the gun arm jabbed her in the lower back. Rose let out a tearful gasp of disbelief yet relief, "you're alive."

"Can't get rid of me that easily, Rosie." Lillie said with a light chuckle.

"I thought you were dead." Rose said.

The Doctor’s smile faded when he realized this meant he’d have to sacrifice her all over again. And this time, the Dalek would force him and Rose to watch. Rose may not but he would watch.

“Lillie…” The Doctor called out, helplessly. He couldn’t help it.

Was Lillie crying? Tears weren’t falling but her body language said she wanted to. “I’m so sorry.” She said. He closed the door on her with the killing machine, a creature that would rearrange her internal organs, painfully, and she was sorry.

"Open the bulkhead!"

"Don't do it!" Lillie told them. “He’s bluffing. He can’t kill me!”

He? The Doctor thought.

The Dalek pressed its sucker on the side of Lillie's face, it put pressure as it half covered her face.

Rose cried out in fear, “NO!”

Lillie still resisted as she swore into the sucker, she fought.

"What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?"

The Doctor paused, momentarily being lost in memories. "I killed her once." His words were carried more weight than they thought, "I can't do it again." The Doctor said, no one stopped him. He pushed the button and the bulkhead opened.

The Dalek let Lillie go who recoiled with anger and few creative expletives and the Dalek… was the Dalek hanging its eyestalk in shame… what was the Doctor looking at and then the screen cut off.

"What do we do now, you bleeding heart!" Van Statten shouted, "What the hell do we do?"

"Kill it when it gets here." Adam suggested and Rose looked at him like, what do think they've been doing?

"All the guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault." Goddard said.

"Only the catalogued ones." Adam said and Van Statten looked at him like, excuse me?

The Dalek forced Lillie to walk through, jabbing her in the back with the gun arm, towards the elevator.

"I saw the love in your thoughts." The Dalek said, "that need."

"You can't tell me you don't need."

"The Doctor... would you die for him?"

Yes.

"I don't know." She refused to admit that she would willingly give up so much for someone who she had known for so little time but she would. She would risk for life to give someone she hated another chance. And she far from hated the Doctor.

"You do know. I have seen the answer. You would die. You would die for the rest of eternity for him."

“Then why ask?”

“There are things I would die for. We are not so different.”

She spun around, furious. “WE ARE NOTHING ALIKE!” She shouted, “YOU ARE DETERMINED TO FIGHT A DYING CAUSE!”

“You save lives with the Doctor. They will one day die.”

“They mean more than your cause!” She spat.

. I was bred to kill and then to die. And I was not afraid. Death was part of my function. But you revived me. By giving me life, you gave me choice.”

"Of course, I did."

"I was never intended to have choice."

"What kind of existence is that?"

"The Dalek way."

“Please…” Lillie said and the Dalek didn’t want to listen but still it did. “You don’t have to kill any more.”

“There are nothing but choices. I see that now. How can you endure it? There is a world inside you. I thought you were small but you are like Time Lord science. All of your thoughts, beliefs, ideas, how do you not drown?"

“How can you endure nothing but hatred?” She countered, “I’ve gone my whole life with choices. I do drown. They overwhelm me sometimes but I’d rather be overwhelmed with emotions than have none at all.”

“Who are you, Lillie Tyler? Who is the Bad Wolf?”

“What?” Lillie asked.

“And why do you look so much like Princess Supernova and why are you so much like her?”

Lillie didn’t know how to respond.

“Do not leave me, Lillie Tyler.”

“I won’t.” She said. Even after all this, she still had the capacity to have mercy for him. And the Dalek knew that it was all because of Rose. And they entered the elevator.

—

Adam and Rose stood in Adam's workshop as the Doctor shifted through the guns, acknowledging them for what they really were and tossing them on the ground. "Broken. Broken. Hairdryer."

"Mister Van Statten tends to dispose of his staff, and when he does he wipes their memory." Adam explained, "I kept this stuff in case I needed to fight my way out one day."

"What, you in a fight? I'd like to see that." The Doctor scoffed.

"I could do." Adam said, indignantly.

"What're you going to do, throw your A-Levels at 'em?" The Doctor asked, sarcastically when he found an actual functioning weapon, "Oh, yes. Lock and load."

The Doctor stopped and noticed a series of scattered objects. Jewlery. That he recognized from a nieghboring planet.

"What are these?" He asked, angrily.

"What?" Adam asked, "Just... alien jewelery. I don't know."

"Yeah, Elder jewlery. These belonged to Elder."

“Doctor!” Rose exclaimed, giving him a pleading look and he nodded. That could wait. He needed to save Lillie.

The brunette and the Dalek were in the elevator as Lillie pleaded with it.

"I'm begging you, don't kill them. You didn't kill me." Lillie begged.

"But why not?" It asked, turning its eyestalk to her, nearly smacking her in the head with it, "Why are you alive? My function is to kill. What am I? What am I?

"Something more. Something with compassion and acceptance."

"You are describing Elders! Daleks hate Elders!" The Dalek shouted at her.

The doors opened, revealing Van Statten and Diana Goddard but not Adam, Rose, or the Doctor, they were safe at least. "Don't move. Don't do anything. It's beginning to question itself." She warned.

The Dalek moved towards the terrified Van Statten. "Van Statten.” For so long all, he had wanted was for the Dalek to say his name but the name he had felt carried the power of the world was spat out in that metallic turning voice like an insult. “You tortured me. Why?"

"I wanted to help you. I just, I don't know. I was trying to help. You’re a survivor.” Correct. “We’re both survivors.” Incorrect. “If you could guess at things I’ve had to do.” Everyone in the room—Goddard, Lillie, the Dalek, and even Van Statten were disgusted by his words, but it disgusted Van Statten in a different way. He was proving he wasn’t the smooth negotiator he seemed to think his portrait conveyed, he was a blubbering child, in the rare moments, he wasn’t having a tantrum when he didn’t get what he wanted. But he couldn’t stop blubbering. “I thought if we could get through to you, if we could mend you. I wanted you better. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I swear, I just wanted you to talk!" Van Statten stammered, tearfully and fearfully as he was backed up against the wall.

He apparently wasn't expendable, but all those people were. The dark part of Lillie thought that he deserved it more than anyone below that had died because of his greed and arrogance. Because of a childhood fancy.

“What would you have had me say?” The Dalek asked.

That had genuinely never occurred to Van Statten. He had no answer.

"Then hear me talk now. Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"

But she needed to be merciful. It’s what Rose would do.

"Don't do it! Don't kill him!" It turned and looked Lillie straight in the face, Van Statten was impressed that she was able to make the Dalek listen to her, she looked at it, unafraid. She was proof personified that there was power in being kind, not that Van Statten could ever understand that. "You don't have to do this anymore. There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there? What do you want?" Lillie pleaded.

"I want freedom." It said.

"Then come and I'll show you freedom," She said.

“Wait.” The Dalek turned back to Van Statten, making him back against the wall. “Touch me.”

Van Statten remembered the man who had burst into flames when he touched the Dalek’s casing.

“I can’t. I-I’ll die.”

“No. You have nothing I wish to extrapolate from you. There is nothing in you I could want.”

Van Statten obeyed and he didn’t die… he felt… honored… he would only later realize that it wasn’t an honor, it was a curse, growing nightmares where Van Statten himself was the Dalek, killing everyone he had ever known but he had too much pride in the immediate aftermath to erase his memory.

Lillie and the Dalek walked down the corridor a little until the Dalek stopped. It determined that the wall was at its weakest just below the helipad and it told Lillie this who nodded in understanding.

“So you did it. You’re free.” She said and then she frowned. Another similarity with the Doctor, the Dalek didn’t like it when Lillie frowned. The Dalek felt confusion in its mind that it didn’t like either. “So why don’t you do it, then? Isn’t this what you wanted?”

It the closest thing to an order that it figured it would get from her, so it fired and blasted a hole in the roof, rubble fell but Lillie didn’t flinch, she just coughed, waving the dust away, a beam of beautiful sunlight streamed down on them.

"You're out. You made it.” She raised her hand into the light, feeling the sun and she moved into the light to it beamed on her face, “I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."

"How does it feel?"

“Didn’t they have a sun on your planet?” She asked. No answer. Oh. He had never felt the sun before. “Can’t you…” Her voice trailed off.

The idea of opening the Dalek casing has never occurred to the Dalek. But it was now… along with so many more ideas.

Lillie moved to look at the front of the Dalek, but not blocking the sunlight, she could hear the machinery whirring and creaking.

The casing of the Dalek opened, revealing a deeply pale—paler than Lillie—one-eyed mutant alien with tendrils for limbs, there were grooves in his skin that resembled the ones of a brain, there were thick webs of some kind of mucus or slime and Lillie had the feeling the tech was wired into the Dalek’s skin.

The Dalek felt like Lillie truly knew him. He thought he would sense her revolution or disgust, there was a twinge of disgust but that had been there since the killing spree, but the Dalek could feel her understanding of who he was, what he was. There was sympathy but not pity.

She noticed old and new burns from the torture, burnt flesh, and sores where metal had or still was pierced into the skin——some of the Dalek oozed on to the floor, she wondered if she should fetch a mop but she wouldn’t think using a broom to swept up someone’s ashes would be proper so a mop wouldn’t be either. She wasn’t disgusted and she wouldn’t allow herself to be fascinated. She chose to accept the Dalek for who he was. She wondered if this was what Daleks were originally or if they had devolved over time in order to survive in that metal prison it called casing, but felt it rude to ask.

The Dalek reached one of the tendrils out into the sunlight, for years, the Dalek had only felt painful physical heat as it was burned to appease an egotistical man’s childhood fancy but now it felt a different warmth. A similar warmth it got from Lillie’s kindness but this warmth didn’t make it’s Dalek philosophy scream in shame.

Lillie gave the Dalek a small smile, it didn’t contain any genuine joy per se but more of a sympathetic happiness for the Dalek, that it finally got some semblance of life… of freedom… or choice… or life.

"Get out of the way.” The Doctor shouted, she turned to see the Doctor with a huge gun pointed at them with Rose behind him who didn't seem to approve of what he was doing but was willing to do whatever it took to save her sister. “Lillie, get out of the way now!"

"No. I won't let you do this." Lillie said.

"That thing killed hundreds of people." The Doctor argued.

"It's not the one pointing the gun at me." Lillie pointed out, darkly and the Doctor flinched as if Lillie had been the second Tyler to slap him.

"I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. Nova and her people. I've got nothing left."

"Look at it." She said, looking at the alien, showing him the Dalek’s open casing.

The Doctor was confused, Daleks usually never voluntarily opened their armor, much like Ice Warriors.

"What's it doing?" Rose asked.

"It's the sunlight, that's all it wants." Lillie said.

"But it can't." The Doctor said, Daleks didn’t want anything but to destroy.

"It couldn't kill Van Statten, it couldn't kill me. It said it took the time energy from me. I think it took more from me. Empathy is a genetic trait. It-It's changing. What about you, Doctor? What the hell are you changing into?" Lillie spat.

The Doctor lowered the gun as if it suddenly became too heavy for him, holding it limply at his side. He looked away from the Dalek and straight into Lillie’s eyes. "I couldn't...” He choked on his words and looked back at the Dalek. “I wasn't...” He stopped again, looking at the Dalek, at its eye, the only sign of what it once was. Then he looked back at Lillie. “Oh, Lillie. They're all dead."

Rose couldn't keep herself back anymore, she ran to her sister, pulling her in for a hug, crying tears of joy as she nearly squeezed the life out of her younger sister.

"Rose." She groaned.

“I thought I lost you…”

"Why do we survive?" The Dalek asked.

"I don't know."

"I am the last of the Daleks." The Dalek said.

"You're not even that. Lillie did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're mutating."

"Into what?" The Dalek asked.

"Something new. I'm sorry."

"Isn't that better?" Rose asked.

"Not for a Dalek."

"I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. So much of your darkness, Lillie. Like… like a dark star. Lillie, give me orders. Order me to die." It told her.

"No, I can't do that." She refused, shaking her head. “Please, don’t make me.”

"This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!"

Lillie closed her eyes as a tear fell, "Do it." She whispered.

And the Dalek could feel her sorrow, overwhelming, so much that it felt like physical pain.

"Are you frightened, Lillie Tyler?"

"Yeah." She said.

"So am I. Exterminate." The Dalek said, it closed its eye as the sisters retreated towards the Doctor. The armor closed up and rose into the air. The balls on its lower body spread out around it creating a forcefield, then it imploded safely.

Lillie buried her face into her sister's shoulder and she started to cry.

“It’s my fault. I did all this.” She cried, nearly buckling, she was so exhausted she couldn’t even rely on her usual coping mechanism of smiling.

Lillie had soon gathered herself as Diana Goddard arrested Van Statten, which Lillie openly applauded as Goddard listed the various crimes, Van Statten had committed including in being responsible for the death of fellow FBI agent, Owen Bywater.

The Doctor had gone back to Adam's workshop and got a box and gathered all of the Elder artifacts he could find. Nova deserved that. She may not have survived but this way, some of Elder still survived and he would keep watch over them in the Tardis. A lot of them were jewelry, Elder had been known for their galaxy-colored gems, the royals being Nova and Queen Kassandra had them but they distributed them to the Elder public, they had always believed that they weren't above their people but it was deemed too risky to distribute them across the universe, their gems were rumored to have energy. Actual energy. On Earth, gems were believed to have emotional energies but on Elder they actually worked. Some of them her basic tools, nothing too dangerous. Some medical tools, some tools that were used to help young Elders become used to their powers, some just everyday tools used for things such as agriculture, architecture, astronomy, science, cooking, gem mining, and other everyday jobs and activities. It was funny how many had ended up on Earth, nonetheless in this very workshop, but Elder technology had been known for its efficiency so the royal family would be generous with giving their tools to other planets.

Back in the museum where the Tardis was.

"A little piece of home. Better than nothing." The Doctor said, hand on his ship, affectionately.

"Is that the end of it, the Time War?" Rose asked.

"I'm the only one left. I win. How about that?" The Doctor said, bitterly.

"The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too." Lillie suggested.

"I'd know. In here." He said, tapping his temple, "feels like there's no one."

"Well then, good thing we're not going anywhere." Lillie said.

"Yeah."

Adam approached them, "We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement, like it never existed."

"About time." Rose scoffed.

"I'll have to go back home." He said.

"Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

"Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars." Rose told the Doctor.

"Tell him to go and stand outside, then." The Doctor sassed.

"He's all on his own, Doctor, and he did help." Lillie said.

"He left you down there." He argued.

"So did you." She reminded him.

"What're you talking about? We've got to leave." Adam said, confused.

"Plus, he's a bit pretty." The Doctor commented.

"I hadn't noticed." Rose shrugged.

"On your own head." He said and then unlocked the Tardis.

"What're you doing? She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." Adam said but was ignored by the trio as they entered the Tardis. "Doctor? What're you doing standing inside a box?” He heard the engines starting up and his curiosity got the better of him. “Rose? Lillie?" Adam crept inside and the Tardis dematerialized.

0 notes

reikunrei · 1 month

Text

I'm not gonna make as in-depth a post about it as my other DW analyses, but a month or so ago I watched the season 1 episode "Dalek" and now I'm thinking about it in relation to what Vecna's ending might look like.

A lot of people complain when they hear folks (such as myself and my friends) say they want Vecna's end to be tragic in some way. They interpret it as us saying we want him to be redeemed, or forgiven, or be made into a "good guy" who actually did nothing wrong, or whatever. Which (setting aside all the Henry/Edward stuff, which I'd argue is a separate discussion anyway) isn't the case at all. Not necessarily, at least. Vecna has done a lot of heinous things that can't be overlooked.

However, that doesn't mean he's entirely unsympathetic. He's very relatable in his motives and is a fun way to explore revenge and justice in the extremes. He's an example of the cracks in the Capital S System. However, I would agree that Vecna as a person and as a concept shouldn't be given a full pass on everything he's done just because his reasoning has a strong foundation.

"Dalek" offers a really interesting alternative where the Dalek in the episode is given multiple chances to "redeem" itself or is shown sympathy, only to constantly push back against it and refuse the kindness offered to it up until the very end. Even so, its eventual self-destruction is still tragic.

This is for multiple reasons, but the one I want to introduce here first to set the tone is: It's tragic because there's no changing what's been done to the Dalek, what the Dalek has done, and the general circumstances of what a Dalek is and their history. Rose wants to help the Dalek, but it's simply not feasible given the circumstances.

So, let's get into some of this episode.

We open on the Doctor and Rose landing in an underground bunker in Utah, USA, having followed a signal "calling for help." Inside this bunker are rows and rows of glass cases containing extraterrestrial artifacts, owned and collected by a man named Henry van Statten. We learn that one of these is a live specimen, which van Statten keeps in "The Cage," where they've been attempting to get it to speak for some time, often resorting to physically harming it and making it scream. Okay, NINA silo.

The Doctor goes in to speak to it, since van Statten wants to know what it is, and we get this exchange:

Some abridged Doctor Who history to explain this interaction: The Daleks are an alien race that's been around for the entire run of the show, first introduced in the original series. As it pertains to the 2005 reboot, early in the show we learn that the Doctor is the last Time Lord in existence because all of them died in the Last Great Time War. The Last Great Time War was fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and it was ultimately ended by the Doctor themself killing (or sealing away) both the Time Lords and the Daleks to stop the conflict and save the universe(s).

The Daleks and the Time Lords have had beef for... basically forever, as far as I know. The Daleks also make multiple returns throughout the rest of the series and still remain a recurring antagonist, though I don't know what's been going on with them past like... season 7 or so. We even get a few more sympathetic portrayals of them, but we don't need to talk about that today.

I should also briefly explain here that the Daleks were bred and evolved to hate. They exist only to kill things that aren't Daleks because they see anything that isn't a Dalek as "wrong." They have such a strong will to live in order to push this regimen that they almost don't die, as their bodies will simply refuse to do so, unless ordered or killed by force. Okay, Vecna. In short: they basically only know hatred and anger, and anything else simply isn't part of their genetics. There's some nuance to this in the greater lore, but I won't touch on that here because it's not introduced in this episode.

Anyway, back to the episode!

Once the Doctor realizes that the Dalek is damaged and can't actually kill him, he starts laying into it, circling it and asking "What are you good for?" and "What's the point of you? You're nothing." The Dalek says it's awaiting orders (something it's bred for), and the Doctor breaks the news that all the other Daleks have been destroyed by him and it won't be getting any orders.

Admitting to his own self-hatred, the Doctor switches on the chains holding the Dalek, electrocuting it. The Dalek begs for pity, and the Doctor says, "Why should I [have pity]? You never did." Then, van Statten enters The Cage with guards and pulls the Doctor out, at which point the Dalek returns to refusing to speak.

The Doctor speaks to van Statten more, telling him about the Time War, learning how the Dalek fell from the sky "like a meteorite" and surmising that it must have fallen through time as the only survivor. And at this point, van Statten smugly eyes up the Doctor, now knowing that he, too, is an alien not of this Earth, and chains him up to be studied and tortured just like the Dalek. There's honestly so much I could say about van Statten and his similarities to Brenner, so I might do that some other time.

Meanwhile, Rose, who's been tagging along with van Statten's assistant, unaware of what's happened thus far, sees security footage of the Dalek being tortured by one of van Statten's scientists and goes to The Cage to investigate and try to help.

She talks to the Dalek, asking if it's in pain, saying that she can help because she has her friend, the Doctor, with her. The Dalek says yes, it is in pain.

Rose continues to insist they help, but the Dalek says that its race is dead and it will simply die alone. Rose places a gentle hand against its "head," which burns her, and as she pulls away, that Dalek shouts, "Genetic material extrapolated. Initiate cellular reconstruction."

Having gotten DNA from Rose, a time traveler, the Dalek is able to regenerate, fixing all of its damage and breaking free of its chains before hacking out of The Cage and gaining access to the entire bunker. In short, it starts killing people indiscriminately and drains all power from the bunker, from Utah, and from the entire west coast of the USA, also downloading all of the information from the internet at the same time.

Most of the rest of the episode is an extended chase scene, where Rose and the assistant, Adam, are trying to get up to a higher level of the bunker, though are often relegated to stairwells and detours in an attempt to keep the Dalek locked away as deep as possible. At one point, Rose and Adam are being escorted by an armed guard when they come face to face with the Dalek in a stairwell, and the armed guard starts trying to talk it down:

Martin "but but but I locked you kids up because I loved you" Brenner, over here.

The first major hint that we start to see something is awry with the Dalek is it and Rose making eye contact, and Rose leaving the interaction feeling like the Dalek saw her as more than just a target for extermination, and rather that "it knows [her]."

Then, after some more chasing and some more mass murder, the Dalek addresses the Doctor. It says that, now with no place to get orders from, it will follow "the Primary Order," or the "Dalek instinct to destroy" and conquer. The Doctor asks why, though. What's the point of doing that at this point when it's the only Dalek left? The Dalek can't answer that and just asks what it should do, wherein we get this impeccable line that aired on public television in the year 2005:

He rips into the Dalek again, really showing his anger as he screams, "Why don't you just die!?" at which point the Dalek responds with, "You would make a good Dalek" before ceasing communication. Mic drop of the goddamn century!!! That scene still drives me absolutely batshit. Anyway.

Rose and Adam are rushing to try and escape the vault portion of the bunker, but they're running out of time. Adam makes it through the final door as it's shutting, but Rose doesn't and is now trapped with the Dalek. Rose talks to the Doctor over her cellphone, telling him that it wasn't his fault and she wouldn't have missed any of this for the world. The Dalek fires its laser, the call drops, and the Doctor reluctantly accepts that she's dead.

However, unbeknownst to him, the Dalek didn't actually kill Rose.

They have a brief back-and-forth, and Rose questions the Dalek's hesitation to kill her.

The Dalek speaks to the Doctor again, revealing that Rose is actually alive and uses her as leverage to get him to open the bulkhead and let the two of them out. Rose pleads with the Doctor to not open the door, but the Dalek uses the Doctor's emotions against him, saying, "What use are emotions, if you will not save the woman you love?"

Rose and the Dalek take an elevator up to where the Doctor and van Statten & co. are hanging out, with the Dalek all the while continuing to act strangely.

The Dalek approaches van Statten, threatening to kill him for torturing it, but Rose tells it not to do it, and it listens. She asks it what else it could want that doesn't involve killing, and the Dalek answers with "freedom." Vecna when...

Rose takes the Dalek ahead, closer to the surface. It blasts a hole in the roof, bringing in a ray of sunlight. Rose says she thought she'd never feel it again, at which point the Dalek asks what it feels like before opening its metal casing to expose the actual Dalek inside. It feels the sun on its skin and reaches out toward the light.

In this moment of vulnerability, the Doctor appears, having grabbed one of the alien-made guns that van Statten has in a feeble attempt to actually kill the Dalek. He yells at Rose to get out of the line of fire, but she refuses, even when he tries to justify it with the number of people the Dalek killed that day, or the fact that it was the Dalek race that created the downfall of the Time Lords. She urges the Doctor to pause and just look at what the Dalek is doing.

Love a good TFS word.

The Dalek asks, "Why do we survive?" and the Doctor doesn't have an answer. When the Dalek once again says that it's the last of its kind, the Doctor explains that it no longer is a Dalek. Having absorbed Rose's DNA for its regeneration, it's begun mutating into something new. Rose asks why that wouldn't be a good thing, but, as I explained earlier, it's because Daleks view themselves as superior, so if they're no longer a Dalek, then they're not worth living.

The Dalek is experiencing human thoughts and emotions, ones that it can't, nor wants, to comprehend, and it asks Rose to order it to die, saying that "This is not life. This is sickness. I shall not be like you!" With some more pushing, Rose finally relents, quietly saying, "Do it."

Guy who says he's not gonna go as in-depth before proceeding to do so anyway. But trust me, I could say a lot more about this episode, I just wanna keep this brief and explore this one concept without the plethora of off-topic potential references.

I hope you can see some of the bones of what I'm getting at in how this could potentially be applied as inspiration for ST5, but let's get into some of my thoughts.

1) Paralleling the Doctor and the Dalek

This is something I've talked about in a lot of my other DW posts so I won't rehash it too much, but it's incredibly telling to me that we, once again, get this emphasis on muddying the waters between "good guy" and "bad guy."

Through the season, we've seen the Doctor grieving his people, constantly saying he's the last Time Lord in the universe and being generally depressed about it. We're very frequently reminded of how sad he is about it, and we're meant to be sad about it, too. More often than not, it's meant as a way to show a deeper bond between him and his companion whenever he shares that information.

Then, we meet this Dalek who is also the last of its kind in the universe, and who is also suddenly made to grieve the loss of its people. From the get-go, it's framed as a sympathetic creature begging for help as it's tortured, and only once the Doctor's bias is brought to light do we get any sort of inkling of an opposing stance.

Then, almost right away, we see their roles essentially swapped. Sure, the Dalek is a formidable opponent with an innate desire to kill everything it sees and perhaps maybe should be eliminated for the sake of the greater good. However, the Dalek is weak and vulnerable, with no way to defend itself, and the Doctor does the objectively shitty thing and tries to kill it while it's cornered. The entire episode has a bad ick about it. Even if the Doctor is technically justified, you still feel bad watching him take advantage of a situation to harm a defenseless creature.

The Dalek says it itself: the Doctor would make a good Dalek, allowing his hatred to drive him to make some morally fucked up decisions. He encourages his fear and rage to guide his hand, and it's not until he has an outside perspective - specifically from someone he cares about the opinion of immensely - that he backs down. If and when we get a similar scenario with Will and someone else having to talk him down... I'm seated.

In the end, it's hard to have sympathy for the Doctor without also extending that to the Dalek.

It very much makes me think of the larger fandom's perspective on Henry in ST, and how they'll dish out heaps of sympathy and empathy for the other characters, and even encourage them to do shitty things for the sake of "revenge" or "taking what they deserve," but then turn around and look at Henry's objectively worse situation and claim that he doesn't deserve that same courtesy simply because of a slightly less appealing past.

To specifically tie it to comparing the Doctor and the Dalek, I'm looking at how we're meant to compare Henry and Will to one another. We see two sensitive boys who come from imperfect households with a desire to be loved and accepted for who they are. We see them go through hardships beyond our imaginations and, the key here, is how their situations during and thereafter are different.

We see the perspective of the Doctor first, and we feel bad for him! When he attacks the Dalek, it feels justified given the history between their races. In ST, we see the perspective of Will first, learning everything he's been through, and thus when he says "we have to kill [Vecna]," it makes sense! We've been led to believe that everything that's happened to Will has been enabled by this one guy, so of course it's justified to want to put a stop to him, and we cheer on the other characters when they come to Will's aid.

But then we get the perspective of the Dalek. We see it admit that it's in pain, that it's sad, that it yearns for freedom and an end to its torture. In ST, we learn more about Vecna, about his (alleged) past, and the trials he's been through to shape him into who he is today, and his desire to make things better. It, then, also makes sense for these characters to react the way they do, even if it's not ideal, and even if their methods and motives aren't the most morally clean.

(I'd also be remiss if I didn't at least briefly tap in on the whole "perspective" thing with what James is discussing in his upcoming big thesis post about TFS. Definitely keep an eye out for it, because it's a super interesting exploration of perspective and how that paints certain behaviors/scenes in different lights than we may have initially been led to believe.)

When I first watched ST4, I wasn't in the fandom at all. I was entirely unaware of the vitriol being slung at Vecna and Henry. I watched him do all these inexcusable things, but then... we have NINA Henry explain what (allegedly) happened and why he is where he is, and I thought... oh.

We're told that this guy had a good reason for doing everything he did. Even if everything he's done is reprehensible, I still sat there thinking "wow, he didn't deserve any of that, everything could have been avoided if he was just treated with decency."

With the Dalek, even after we see what it's done, we're meant to feel bad for it. Should it be forgiven? Perhaps not, but it was just doing the only thing it knew how to do after being put in a situation by someone else (van Statten) that allowed it to do the damage that it did, much like Brenner essentially enabling the creation of Vecna by cornering a child into the lab and forcing his hand.

All in all, it really pushes you to accept that someone who is "good" can do bad things because they think it's what should be done, and someone who is "bad" can be offered a chance to change and become better, and it doesn't even have to be detraction if they refuse that help. And, ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if Vecna is offered help, but refuses it because it's too late. Not because he's being petulant and stubborn, but because there's genuinely no point, much like with the Dalek (even if the Dalek is being more petulant and stubborn than anything).

2) Vecna and the Daleks

By no means do I want it to come off like I'm directly correlating Vecna to the Daleks. There's too many key differences, particularly in what they are, for me to do that with a straight face.

I already explained that Daleks are born and evolved to hate. That's the only emotion they feel, because anything else would give them doubt in their Primary Order. Meanwhile, Vecna very much is a person. Even if he's not fully human, there's a human core there that allows him to hesitate and feel something other than disdain for humanity (I will always and forever stare at the way he kept El alive. Sir, I know you're not that cocky. Just kill her. Unless she....... means something to you......?).

Throughout ST, everything that comes out of the UD is distinctly nonhuman. I remember very early on in ST4 thinking it was weird that they made something from the UD so close to human. So, even if we're led into the story believing that Vecna is something purely monstrous, by the end we're shown that he is, in fact, still a human and always has been a human.

It's similar, if not slightly inverted, to what happens with the Dalek in this episode: We open on this strange alien creature and learn it was the reason for the downfall of the Time Lords, but by the end, it's been infused with enough human DNA that it becomes even harder to treat it with cruelty.

And I know I said I wasn't going to get into the deeper lore of the Daleks, but I have to just mention one of the myths of their creation from the short story "We are the Daleks!" published in 1973:

So like... um... anyway... just chew on that a little bit, I guess!!

As a final note for this thought, I do also find it interesting that even their motives could be considered similar. The Daleks kill everything that isn't a Dalek. And, yes, it is because of hatred, but it's also specifically about guaranteeing their own survival and making the universe fit for them. Not too far off from that, we have Vecna wanting to reshape the world into what he wants it to be so that he can exist freely. It's not exactly one-to-one, especially given that Vecna's motives are more of a commentary on the flaws of society while the Daleks are committing a "racial cleansing" (the Doctor's words, not mine), but I'd be remiss to not at least touch on it.

3) Objective Perspective

Rose gives us a very stark show of what bias can do in this episode. She showed sympathy before she knew anything about the Dalek, and while she does become frightened and tries to flee from it, by the end of the episode she's managed to either fight against or accept her fear and continue to try and help the Dalek and show it kindness.

It reminds me a lot of what we see with D'art in ST2, to the point that Rose's experience is almost beat for beat what happens with Dustin:

Finding the demoslug and growing fond of it because he doesn't know what it is.

Becoming frightened when he learns it's a "baby demogorgon" and tries to trap it.

Learning that he can have a connection and cooperate with it even if he's still scared.

Even Will manages to fight against his fear, understanding that D'art is just in a vulnerable position and needs help more than anything.

On top of Rose's demeanor with the Dalek, we also get to study how she reacts to the Doctor as the episode progresses. By and large, she's disgusted with the way the Doctor is behaving, calling him out multiple times and begging him to see the bigger picture. He's hurt, of course, but he can't continue to resort to violence under the guise of being afraid when this Dalek is no longer the same as the Daleks he hates. She doesn't even fully understand that until the very end, and still she can see that it's changing and it's been deserving of compassion this whole time.

The Doctor and the Dalek both hate each other and hate themselves, and Rose is the only one who can cut in, generally understanding both sides of the argument, to get everyone to back down. She's viewed both the Doctor and the Dalek with a clean, unbiased lens, which allows her to take in all the information she's given without any sort of judgement clouding her decisions.

Sure, her fear does take over a few times, but it's almost exclusively when her life is in immediate danger and she never takes it out directly on the Dalek. As soon as the Dalek refuses to kill her, she can wrangle herself into at least trying to approach things calmly and objectively and attempt to talk the Dalek down rather than resorting to brute force.

It makes me wonder just how, exactly, this is going to go down for Vecna. We've been given a lot of information thus far, but everyone has a different set of pieces without a way to combine them correctly just yet, and there's so many personal stakes involved that it becomes hard to parse out what's really an objective reading.

Will has been personally affected by the UD and the MF, which also affected his immediate family and friends.

El lived in the lab for her whole life and knew Henry personally, and potentially was the catalyst for finally creating Vecna.

Brenner has a desire to make himself look good as he works for his own selfish gains, and puts others in harm's way to get there.

Multiple people have had their lives directly altered by something Vecna did.

Vecna himself has a mess of wrongs against him that he's desperate to "fix."

etc. etc...

It's really just a whole big mess, and it's going to take a lot of work for someone to break out of the personal feelings involved in order to get everyone on all sides to step back and do some self-reflecting.

It's interesting to me that "Dalek" is not only a lesson in sympathy for others, but a lesson in sympathy for oneself. It's a large part of the Doctor's arc in this first season, and sympathy in general has been a huge part of ST throughout the whole show (which I know I've talked about endlessly irt these comparisons to DW), and it's a sentiment becoming increasingly pushed on our "villain" characters.

Like how the Doctor is "brought down" to the Dalek's level of cruelty and the Dalek is "brought up" to the Doctor's level of deserving sympathy, our "villain" characters in ST are being brought up to the protagonists' level of deserving sympathy, and our protagonists...? Well, we've already been blessed with loads of imperfect "good" characters in this show thus far, so I will not be surprised when that gets taken to the extreme.

It's already in line with El's monster vs superhero internal debate: a good character can do something morally reprehensible, with or without "proper" motive, and they will still be deserving of compassion.

In conclusion, while obviously I don't think it'll be a one-to-one, I do think that this DW episode offers an interesting route for Vecna's arc to take, specifically in regard to his demise. While a character such as Henry or Edward, who were dragged into this situation against their will, might be deserving of forgiveness/clearing their names and may still be able to be "saved," in whatever form that may be, someone like Vecna might simply be too far gone. There's no going back at this point, and it just has to be accepted.

I was talking to James about this, and I agree when he said it wouldn't be surprising if Vecna was offered help, he earnestly thanked them for it, but then had to refuse it anyway. I wouldn't be shocked if El wants to help him so badly but ultimately has to accept that sometimes things can't be undone, and they simply have to run their course, even if it has an unsatisfactory outcome. Especially if that outcome was one that could have been avoided had they gotten to the problem sooner. That is the tragedy.

The Dalek is a bit more complicated than that, obviously, given what it is as a species and its refusal for help being because it sees no point in existing now that it's "contaminated," but I think you can pick up what I'm putting down. The Dalek could have accepted the help and could have striven to change like Rose thought it could, but it simply wasn't in the cards and would have caused more pain than not.

The Daleks come up again in future episodes, which I might talk about someday, but I felt like this one was a good exploration of what you can do with an established villain and flip the narrative until they're almost entirely sympathetic while our "good guy" seems ridiculous for behaving the way he does. It is not a stretch to apply that sentiment to ST, especially because we have even more of a foundation for compassion toward our "villains" in that show than the Dalek got in this episode.

I could talk a lot more about this episode, too. There's so many trains of thought that this inspired, but, again, I want to just talk about this topic for now, so all the weird "why is this so ST" bits can stay in the vault (or you can go watch the episode yourself, which I highly recommend! It's a good one).

Overall, just knowing that DW was some level of inspiration for ST makes me excited to see what the Duffers took from that classic series and how they'll use it to inform their own final season, and specifically how they'll further the "no one is special/better/worse" message they have going on. We'll see!

#i say things #st dw #stranger things #vecna

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